I Hate You, I Love You
by Desuchi
Summary: Meet Aisha, a talented Elemental Master who aims to be number one. Meet Elsword, the arrogant and hot Rune Slayer who casually walks into Aisha's life and runs all over her efforts in being the best when he swipes the top score on the biggest exam of the year. She ends up hating him, but when they're forced into being partners for a project, can hate turn into something else? EMxRS
1. Chapter 1

**A.N. Not a big fan of this pairing but it just came to me…random plot bunny attack. Other classes don't matter besides these two-**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer**

**Aisha: Elemental Master**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

* * *

Violet eyes were drooping steadily lower and lower as a certain purplenette's mind became heavy and clouded with drowsiness. She felt her head slowly tip forward onto her propped up palms, her elbows crooked upon the surface of the old worn desk she was occupying. The dusty floor felt gritty against the bottom of her thin shoes when she dragged her feet across it out of pure boredom. Aisha yawned as inconspicuously as she could and wearily fixed one of her pigtails, where a hair tie had gotten loose, before spacing out and staring blankly at the doodles on her desk's wood.

It was only her luck to end the day with the most boring class in the whole school.

The teacher in the front of the room had his back turned to the students, completely unaware of the notes that were being passed around, nor the playing cards that were being shuffled near the left bulletin board for a new game of poker. Some girls were softly whispering in the corner about the upcoming dance next month and one was already writing down the latest additions to her planned outfit. Aisha merely sighed and stared out the glass window. It was so sunny outside, and there was nothing else that she wanted to do other than to run out of this miserable place and relax in the cheerful sunlight. Maybe if she took it easy for one day…

She shook her head at the silly thoughts. No. There was no way she'd ever be able to throw away her free time so carelessly. She had important exams to worry about, and studying was basically the key point of her life.

She aspired to become the greatest magician known to Elrios, and she was damn near close to it. Aisha was an Elemental Master, a title and name given to her as an award for her hard work and time spent on perfecting her magic. Having finally mastered all the elements last year, it was only obvious that she should find another way to fine-tone those skills and work her way up to being above Noah and Speka, the two most well known and strongest mages on the planet…for the while at least.

"And if one finally masters the elements of water and wind, it is possible to summon a ice storm at a location of your choosing…" The teacher continued, writing various runes across a blank part of the board, sending chalk dust raining down onto the little panel that flipped out from the bottom of the surface.

Aisha yawned again, for the third time that day. She had learned how to do that on her own a few years ago. Blizzard Shower, that's what she called it. It was almost sad how the others in her class still couldn't create an icicle in a heated room with magic, when she already knew how to freeze particles in the clouds with magic and make them fall to the ground at her will.

Well, if she wasn't going to learn anything here, she may as well finish up her chapter on combining elements into dual-magic from last night. The purplenette quietly fished out the huge book from her bag and flipped to her bookmarked page. Her eyes scanned the letters and soaked in all the information like a sponge.

_Let's see…to combine elements that negate each other in nature requires a lot of precision, but it also says that, in true nature, all elements are one, and one element is all. So if I manage to tap into that 'true' nature core, I can merge the elements to create magic unique to myself, and myself only …_Aisha mused to herself, fingering a corner of the page before turning it. A loud knocking on the door broke her train of thoughts. She looked up in curiosity, as did the rest of her classmates.

"Yes, who is it?" The teacher droned, adjusting his glasses before opening the door. A smirking red headed boy stood there, his body giving off an aura of arrogance and pride.

"I'm the new student. This is room 221, correct?" The boy casually stated, his ruby eyes flickering behind the teacher to stare at the interested students inside. Aisha's eyes met the new boy's for a second, and then she quickly turned back to her book.

"It certainly is, young man." The teacher responded, moving aside for the boy to come in. The redhead sauntered in, his cropped shirt showing off his well-toned stomach. Aisha heard a few girls squeal behind her and facepalmed inside her head, although she kept her face straight. "Would you like to introduce yourself?"

"Name's Elsword. I'm a Rune Slayer." The boy, Elsword, smirked and ran a hand through his tousled red locks. "I heard this class has many magic experts in here, I hope to have _fun_ working with you all." He winked, making Aisha groan and bury her face into her book in exasperation.

Of course, another one of those playboys that probably don't know any other type of magic than how to flip skirts by controlling wind. Just great.

"Well then Elsword, pleased to meet you, my name is Mr. Seung." The teacher welcomed the redhead, who slightly inclined his back to bow in a barely noticeable show of respect.

Wonderful, he has enough pride to sound like a total jerk AND to physically glue his spine bones together. The guy couldn't even have enough modesty to bow before an older person in respect. Aisha wrinkled her nose at Elsword, her judgment of him not coming out so great.

"Ah, Elsword, the available empty seats here are those two in the back. You may sit next to Aisha, or seat yourself behind Sam." Mr. Seung adjusted his glasses again and turned back to his lesson. "Now class, pay attention and let Elsword get himself settled. As I was saying before, the properties of ice come from the two elements, water and wind…"

"Mr. Seung? I believe you have drawn the water rune incorrectly." Elsword called from his chosen seat next to Aisha, who was busy scooting her chair away from him as far as she could. The class stopped buzzing at the redhead's statement.

Mr. Seung carefully looked at the redhead and narrowed his eyes. "Elsword, I understand you are the new student and you come with previous experiences of magic from other schools, but I assure you, this is how the water rune is correctly drawn."

"Not to be rude, but," The Rune Slayer lazily drawled, contradicting his statement of not being rude. "I'm pretty sure I can draw runes far more accurately than you were taught in your teacher school."

It was dead quiet in the class. The Elemental Master slowly closed her book and watched her to-be seating partner with seemingly indifferent eyes. Interesting, he's a new student, yet he's already making a bad image of himself. Was he doing it on purpose?

"Well then, if you know runes so well, why don't you draw the rune on the board yourself then?" The teacher raised an eyebrow and held out a piece of chalk to Elsword as a sign of a passive challenge.

Elsword set his bag down on the chair and snatched the chalk from the teacher's hand with an all-knowing grin on his face. A quick scratch of chalk on the board later, a crisp, perfectly-round rune was imprinted onto the board, almost as if he had stuck a sticker onto the board instead of drawing it.

What was really different was that it was glowing blue, while the teacher's remained as a pale and dusty marking on a dark surface. Everyone, including the teacher, stared open mouthed at the glowing rune on the chalkboard before Elsword swiped it away with the eraser.

"Proves it. My runes are better. Not to be rude, of course." The Rune Slayer snickered quietly and went back to his seat, leaving a slightly embarrassed teacher up front.

"I believe you have…proved your point." The teacher managed after swallowing in hidden annoyance. "Now, if I may, I would like to continue on with my teaching."

"By all means, go ahead." The redhead replied, waving his hand casually. Mr. Seung stiffly turned back around and resumed his droning.

Aisha stared unbelievingly at the smirking boy sitting next to her. First day of school. Flirted with everyone in the class with one sentence. Contradicted the teacher. Proved that he was right and the teacher was wrong. How. Why. What.

"Problem?" The redhead raised a thin eyebrow at the purplenette, who immediately bristled. She really disliked people like him, why should she even bother to talk nicely to them? It would only come back to bite her in the butt.

"Not really." She gave him a tight smile that screamed 'shut up and look somewhere else before I bash your face in with a book'. "It's just that I find you to be a really arrogant know-it-all." She froze and felt a cold drop of sweat roll down her face.

Damn, she didn't mean to say that. Her mouth slipped…oh crap. She tightly grasped the book in her hands as a slow smirk came to Elsword's face.

Oh no no no. That look spelled out something that wasn't good for her.

"An arrogant know-it-all, hm?" The Rune Slayer shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose I may seem like that to lesser people."

The purplenette snapped. "Lesser people? Really?" She glared at him and slammed her hand down on the book she was holding on to, not caring at all when the class jumped and Mr. Seung glared at her from the chalkboard. "I'm pretty sure jerks like you have no talent in magic whatsoever. Your work ethic is horrible and your attitude is just trash." She hmph-ed. "Even disrespecting a teacher on the first day of school, and you have the nerve to call me a 'lesser' person?" Aisha glared hard into the redhead's amused crimson eyes, her violet orbs hardened with anger. "Just because you can draw perfect runes on the board and the rest of us can't doesn't mean you can act all high and mighty."

Surprisingly enough, the redhead didn't explode in anger as she had expected. In fact, to her increasing frustration, Elsword chuckled and flipped his bangs casually, as if someone had told him a funny joke.

"So, in other words, you're telling me that you're not a 'lesser' person? No need to get so defensive over a petty insult."

"Damn right I am." She growled, her purple pigtails starting to flutter in a suddenly strong wind. Uh-oh, she was losing control over her magic…no good, if this goes on, she'll end up creating destructive cyclones in the middle of a classroom.

"Hm, I'll be the judge for that. I do like challenges." Elsword's eyes seemed to gleam ominously. Aisha felt a chill run down her spine, but forced herself to keep her face straight. He couldn't be suggesting…

"How about a spar after school?"

Oh…fuck.

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**End of first chapter, how was it? Other charas will make appearances later~ Review please, I need opinions on their personalities since I always have trouble on that~**


	2. Chapter 2

**A.N. WOOAAHHAHHHSJASO :O 10 reviews for the first chapter, didn't expect so much feedback! I love you guys :D So here's the next chapter.**

**By the way, I might not be very efficient when it comes to Aisha's attacks. I haven't played her class so I don't know much about her. I'm using Elwiki and my High Magician as references xD**

**Classes: (I'll keep adding on)**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer**

**Aisha: Elemental Master**

**Disclaimer: No own :3**

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The bell rang loudly, signifying the end of the school day. Classrooms were emptied within minutes as various students rushed out, eager to get home or join afterschool activities. The last girl had run out of the classroom when Aisha slowly put away her pencil case, already feeling an impending sense of doom and anxiety for her match.

She was never good at sparring, Aisha thought to herself as she zipped her bag closed. Although her magic was powerful and fearsome, when it came to fighting people head-on, more often than not, she lost. Maybe it was because most of her attacks required intense concentration to perform, and concentrating was difficult when someone is constantly charging at you and trying to kill you. It was like trying to count backwards from a hundred while people screamed random numbers in your ears.

The Elemental Master combed back her hair with her fingers and retied her hair before slinging her backpack onto her shoulder. She was starting to regret snapping at the new boy, seeing as how he looked positively demonic when he announced their spar. Aisha stepped out into the empty hallway and heard her footsteps echo eerily as she purposely walked at a snail's pace to the school yard, where nothing but humiliation awaited her. She turned a corner to enter a stairwell and bumped into something hard and warm.

"Took you long enough." A familiar voice snorted. Aisha looked up to see Elsword's annoying face. She glared at him.

"Well excuse me for not rushing to finish our little argument. I never willingly agreed to this stupid spar."

"Is it because you're going to lose?" The redhead smirked and cocked an eyebrow at her, making the purplenette bristle.

"Shut up. Don't whine when you lose, because I don't plan on going easy." There it was, another bluff that came tumbling out from between her lips. Aisha mentally slammed her face into a wall at her big mouth. The humiliation was going to be worse now, now that she puffed up her head and spewed out a bunch of crap about her winning.

"Good. I wasn't expecting you to." Without offering a hand to help her up, Elsword spun on his heels and walked out the exit and didn't look back. "Meet you in the school yard, good luck." He called, his haughty tone obviously not wishing her any luck in the fight.

Stuck-up prick. If only she was strong enough to actually win, it would be so satisfying to beat him and squish his extravagant pride.

Aisha picked herself off the floor and angrily adjusted her backpack on her shoulders again, frustrated at herself at her lack of combat skills. Not her fault for being a studious bookworm, it was no one's loss but hers anyways if she didn't like rolling in the dirt and hurting herself purposely in dog fights. She strode quickly out the door, intent on at least landing a few hits on that redheaded bastard.

* * *

Out in the school yard, she was rather happy to see that the spar was going to be private. No one was there, besides that one stupidly arrogant redhead already standing in the yard with his hands in his pockets. He rudely yawned when she set her backpack down and summoned her staff. He took one look at her staff and failed to cover his laugh when he chortled behind his hand.

"What?" Aisha glared at him, self consciously twirling her trusty weapon in her hands.

"Seriously? That's your weapon?" Elsword snickered, and whipped his hand out, a sword with many belts appearing in his hands. "If you were going to fight, at least have something that can actually hurt."

"You'll see how much this hurts when I slap you in the face with it." The purplenette huffed, already trying to contact the nature magic in the air so she could charge her mana.

"Heh. When the church tower rings for three o' clock, we start. You have until then to prepare yourself for losing." Red eyes coolly looked at her, the person who possessed them glowing with a strange blue aura around his body.

"Fine." Aisha replied uncaringly, wanting to get this match over and done with. She had books to study at home, and her mana was almost full. **(AN: I don't want to say mana bar, since it'll be too game-like then :p)**.

Birds whistled in the air as the two opponents prepared themselves. All was quiet until the familiar sound of the church bell ringing echoed in the outside air. One ring…two rings…three rings…

Aisha quickly teleported out of the way when Elsword ran at her, wordlessly starting the match without any warning. She chucked burning fireballs in his direction, which he skillfully dodged before sending a rune of his flying towards her. Too late to dodge it, she activated a shield of mana and withstood the brunt of the attack without much injury.

"Cyclone!" A purple tornado spun across the yard, catching the redhead by the leg and trapping him inside it. Aisha grinned spitefully.

"Got you now! Blaze Step!" Fire spurted from beneath her feet as she ran to Elsword and threw more fireballs in his direction, her aim perfect from the close range. The flames underneath her feet served to be more useful in toasting her redheaded target.

Getting close, however, was her mistake. The redhead managed to jump out of her cyclone and twisted out of the way as she sent a big fireball in his direction. He grabbed her by the shoulder and spun her viciously around, locking her in place with a giant rune and exploding it, sending her flying up into the air.

"Splash Explosion! Wind Blade!"

A giant red blade appeared out of nowhere and hit her square in the chest, making her fly into the fence on the far side of the field. She wheezed and coughed out a little blood, although it was nothing too serious. Aisha wiped her lips, staining her snow white sleeve red, and summoned her trusty Blizzard Shower.

Ice crystals as big as boulders fell from the sky, creating craters upon impact with the ground and freezing Elsword's left arm when they managed to hit the evasive boy. His sword clanged to the ground before another hail stone froze it to the floor, leaving the Rune Slayer without a weapon.

"You have no weapon now, what are you going to do?" The Elemental Master taunted, clutching her chest where Wind Blade had pierced her. Not willing to make the mistake of getting close to him again, she formed an orb of glowing white light on her staff before releasing it, where it flew to the redhead and began to chase him around when the Rune Slayer tried to avoid it. Magic Missile, her favorite guided attack.

"Don't get too cocky, Grape Head." The Rune Slayer smirked and grabbed her Magic Missile out of the air with a burning fist, instantly vaporizing it to nothing. He moved his flaming hand to his left arm, melting the ice surrounding it and freeing his arm.

Aisha gaped as she watched the redhead flick his wrist and the sword that was frozen to the ground disappeared from under the ice and reappeared in his hands. She paled when his ruby gaze flickered to her.

The Elemental Master panicked and knew that right there and then, she had lost. She hurriedly put on her Mana Shield and braced herself, at least hoping her loss would be quick and painless.

Her mouth was half open in a scream of pain when Elsword somehow appeared right up in her face and slammed his sword into the ground, crackling flames exploding under his blade and severely burning her legs. The burns felt like double-edged knives stabbing into her tender skin as she was thrown to the ground and lay there, slumped and unable to get up from the floor. Aisha lay there, her hair covering her face, barely keeping herself conscious.

_I can't lose…I'll never hear the end of it…Is this it? The fruit of my hard work? To be so easily beaten by another magic user when I've studied it for years…One hit…and I'm down…how pathetic of me._

Dim purple eyes looked up at an expressionless face when she shakily lifted up her head. Elsword looked down at her with a seemingly cold expression, his sword lowered and pose no longer offensive.

It was true…she really did lose. She gave a barely audible sigh and lowered her head in defeat again, resting her aching body against the rough ground of the school yard.

"You…win." Her vision faded to black. Her body was as light as a feather when she drifted off into darkness.

* * *

Aisha blearily opened her eyes, waking up from her deep sleep. She quickly got up and looked around wildly, her violet orbs wide in surprise and fear, before she calmed herself. It was okay. She was in her bedroom, back at home and her burns treated and bandaged. The purplenette limped off her bed with a bit of difficulty and opened the door.

"Mom?" She called out. Silence answered her. She slowly and painfully walked into the kitchen, where the only noise was the sound of the refrigerator humming.

No one was home. So how did she get here? Aisha pondered this as she walked back into her room, intent on studying again.

Hey, don't look like that. Through pain and sickness and whatever other hell she goes through, she still studies like a good magician trying to improve herself. Aisha sat herself down at her desk and flipped open her book, the same book she had opened in class today before the Rune Slayer invaded her classroom.

A paper slipped out. Curious, the Elemental Master picked it up and almost immediately crushed it.

It was a picture of her on her bed, obviously taken a few hours ago, of her looking innocent and peaceful in her sleep, with bandaged legs and snuggling with her teddy bear. Her face flamed red with mortification and she slammed the photo on her desk with fury.

Whoever took this embarrassing photo of her was going to get a flaming staff shoved up their-

A note was written on the back. Purple eyes quickly scanned the writing and narrowed with increasing rage.

_Grape Head,_

_ Interesting match, but sadly you didn't win. I'm surprised you even trapped me a few times and landed a couple of hits, but we can obviously see who the better one is now. Be glad I had enough consideration to fix up your burns, obviously since your body is too weak to handle my Sword Fire, even when I'm holding back. And you still have a teddy bear? Seriously?_

_ Elsword._

Aisha gritted her teeth and cut the offending paper to pieces with a nearby scissor. Scraps of thin paper when fluttering into her trash can as she huffed and furiously went back to studying, trying to forget the infuriating redhead with new information on dual magic.

_Elsword, you blasted son of a b-_

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**End~ How was it? Review please **


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. I actually almost forgot I had a fanfiction account. Oh gawd. Good thing I accidently opened up one of my story files and remembered ^^ Been busy with the new Infinity Sword event, I want that pretty sparkling Conwell o3o**

**My High Magician is so cuuuute omg, I finally got over the annoyingness of her arm flapping and kyaaaa time to spoil her like a princess . (le neglects Rune Slayer and Code Empress)**

**Classes:**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer**

**Aisha: Elemental Master**

**Raven: Reckless Fist**

**Rena: Grand Archer**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the fabulosity that Elsword is.**

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"Alright everyone! Quiet down!" A deep voice hollered over the screaming and yelling of the students outside. Sweat beaded the adult's face as he took a quick sip of water from his bottle and blew into an orange whistle.

_TWEEEEEEEEEEEET!_

"Honestly, you guys. What's gotten into you all today?" Raven sighed when everyone slowly simmered down, wiping the sweat off his forehead and tapping his sneakers on the sun-baked ground. He snapped his fingers at a clump of whispering girls and immediately shut them up. A few boys whistled and hooted back in response to his question.

"The new kid, Elsword!"

"You'll love him, Coach!"

"Yeah! He's awesome at soccer, he can own all of us when it's just him versus everyone!"

Raven raised an eyebrow in interest, the white spot in his wild hair gleaming brightly in the fierce sunlight. "New kid?"

"Yeah, that'd be me." An arrogant voice called, everyone turning in the speaker's direction. The redhead was revealed to be clad in the school's standard P.E. outfit, a white shirt with the school's logo on it and blue gym shorts. The coach blew into his whistle again as the chattering girls went into another uproar.

"Kyaaa! Elsword is so hot!"

"Omg! That uniform totally brings out his slim body figure!"

"The school gym clothes might not be so bad after all, don't ya think?"

Aisha plugged her ears and tried to do her best to stay hidden in the corner of the crowd. Apparently, sharing the same homeroom with the bastard also meant having the same gym periods, which totally sucked since she was crap when it came to exercise. Let's see, the longest she ever ran before collapsing in complete exhaustion was five minutes.

No joke. Aisha remembered clearly how she was literally about to pass out 8 feet away from the starting line.

You can see her dilemma now. She just lost badly to the redhead yesterday and now he'll see her make a complete fool of herself (as usual) in P.E. The purplenette grumbled to herself and inched away from Elsword's loud fangirls, wishing for nothing but to wordlessly summon Blizzard Shower to freeze their talkative mouths.

Honestly, what did those girls see in him? Sure, she would admit he's somewhat attractive, but his total jerkface attitude and pride was a complete turn off. She preferred nice and handsome guys like her gym coach.

Shhh…don't tell anyone, but she has a tiny bit of a crush on her gym teacher. He was always so nice and understanding, and he's also relatively young for a teacher. She was 15, he was 20. Five years isn't that much of a difference…right?

Aisha quickly shook her head to clear her thoughts. Everyone knew that Raven was head over heels in love with the school nurse, Ms. Rena. The green haired lady was very beautiful and kind, with a gentle voice and flowing emerald hair, and a body figure that would make any woman jealous. Aisha sort of envied the nurse, but held nothing against the woman in general.

A thudding noise next to her snapped her out of her thoughts. The purplenette's eyes narrowed when they landed on the familiar face of Elsword. Aisha quickly scooted away from him, or tried to, at least. His hand stopped her.

"What do you want?" She asked, narrowing her eyes even more. Elsword rolled his eyes and pointed upwards.

"Ball."

No sooner than he had said that word, a soccer ball smacked loudly onto the pavement where she had been about to shift to. She would've ended up with a painful lump on her head if Elsword hadn't prevented her from moving. Aisha snatched her hand back from the redhead's hold.

"Thanks. Now can you leave me alone?" The Elemental Master snapped, turning away from the redhead and purposely looking straight ahead and nowhere else.

Aisha felt Elsword snicker quietly (She twitched slightly in annoyance) and withdraw his hand. "How ungrateful. Still sore about your loss?" Aisha heard him murmur.

"Shut it. I lost, big whoop. You planning to be a jerk and rub it in?" Aisha glowered, still not looking at the guy next to her.

"Not really. There would be no point in it. I have better things to do than gloat over irrelevant victories." He replied casually, not even sounding guilty of the insults he was throwing at her.

The purplenette clenched her jaw and felt the pavement below her fingers burn slightly, her fingertips sinking into the now melting ground. Aisha quickly yanked her hand away from the ground and saw the imprints of her finger tips burned into the school yard.

"You're getting pissed over that?" A small smirk etched its way onto Elsword's face, driving Aisha's anger levels above what was considered healthy.

"Shut up. Please." Aisha hissed, holding in her annoyance. She was still pissed over her loss, her lack of studying time yesterday due to the match, and the stupid picture. "Can't you just leave me alone?"

"No. After what happened yesterday, of course I won't." The Rune Slayer's voice was teasing…in a bad way. "You're my new target this year."

"I thought you said you have…ah, what was it? 'Better things to do'." _Target? _The Elemental Master snorted. She cradled her burnt fingers and winced.

Stupid fire magic rebound from her anger. Geez. Her fingers stung like a bee had danced on them with its stinger.

"Aisha! Come up and demonstrate the kick I just performed!" Raven called from the front of the class. Said person squeaked in surprise and looked up wildly, purple hair flying left and right, suddenly wanting to dig herself into a hole and not come out.

First time she didn't pay attention in class- ever.

Aisha slowly got up and trembled slightly as she went up to the front, where Raven looked at her with a disapproving teacher-like expression. He knew that she wasn't paying attention and he called her up on purpose, and she was going to get punished for it.

"A…A kick?" Aisha asked tentatively, ignoring a certain smirking redhead in the crowd. The students' eyes seemed to burn into her small body, making her sweat even more in the hot weather.

"Yes. Low Blow Kick. Second Form." Raven tapped his clipboard with his pen. "If you weren't too busy flirting with Mister Elsword over there, maybe you would have learned how to perform it today."

_Flirting?! As if!_

Aisha winced when the glares of the fangirls were stabbed through her at the coach's statement. _Ouch…who knew glares hurt as much as knives?_ The Elemental Master pursed her lips and looked down, remaining silent.

"Aisha, I am disappointed with you today. You usually never get distracted." The Reckless Fist sighed, rubbing his temples. "See me after class. The rest of you, pair up and practice the kick on each other. Remember, kick lightly and avoid hurting each other!"

The Elemental Master went back to her spot with red ears, avoiding everyone's eyes. Aisha felt the tears of embarrassment in her eyes.

Why was she crying? It was only a simple thing, she was caught misbehaving and was going to get a small talk after class. Her eyes became even more watery and her vision blurred as the tears kept accumulating.

Why couldn't she do anything right anymore? Oh right…it's all _his_ fault. She quietly sat down next to Elsword, who stared at her with amusement.

"Looks like the perfect student just got in trouble."

"Shut up." She whispered. Couldn't he just stay quiet for once? Let her get upset over this small failure and be done with it.

"Hm? A bit touchy now, aren't you?" She could hear the snicker in his tone.

"Shut. Up."

"Make me."

"…."

Aisha's temper flared.

Seconds suddenly seem to pass by as hours when Aisha's vision faded to red, her irritation sparking. She faintly heard screaming in the background. Her body burned with pain. Why? The burns seemed to grow hotter and hotter as time passed, making her open her mouth in a silent scream that disappeared in her throat.

Then…coldness. Almost as if someone had doused her in ice cold water, all the heat disappeared and left her with a cold freezing thawing feeling in her stomach. No warmth was left in her body, it was like that cold void in her stomach had sucked in every single bit of heat and swallowed it.

Were her eyes closed? She was pretty sure she opened them, but all she saw was red either way. Why is that? How interesting. A warm feeling tickled her stomach, filling up the chilling void. The feeling spread to the rest of her body, every vein pulsing with warmth as her body was once again heated to probably beyond human capacity.

Something hard hit her stomach. Aisha hacked and coughed out something that dribbled stickily down her chin. Purple strands of hair were plastered to her sweating face as her vision stopped being red and cleared to the scenery of a destroyed school yard.

"What…W-What the…" She gasped, clutching her stomach. Her hands flew to her mouth in surprise and pain, but she quickly drew them away when her fingers came in contact with warm liquid.

Blood.

She looked around wildly, her vision clear now. Fire everywhere…burning meteors and huge chunks of ice were imbedded in the debris that was once the school ground. The area around her feet was burning with flames that reached her knees.

Meteor Shower. Blizzard Shower. Blaze Step. Her face paled when she saw the unconscious bodies of fellow students.

_Did I do this? What in the seven circles on hell happened?_

"Aisha! What the hell is going on today?!" Raven grabbed her by the shoulder and shook her. "First you don't pay attention in class, and now you lose control of yourself and start destroying everything."

"I…What?" Amethyst orbs grew wide. "I…lost control?"

"Yup. This is why girls can't be trusted with-" The Rune Slayer started, before being cut off with the coach's glare. "Nevermind." He looked off into the flames, his ruby eyes matching the fire colors perfectly, kicking a stray piece of debris out of the way.

While everyone seemed to be slightly injured or passed out, he seemed perfectly unscathed. The gym uniform wasn't even stained or damaged, and his hair was still messily tousled in that 'just rolled out of bed' look. He looked exactly the way he did when he walked into homeroom.

The Elemental Master shakily got to her feet with Raven's assistance and unsummoned all of the destruction. The ice melted inside its craters and the meteors faded away into nothing. The infernos surrounding her feet disappeared. All that was left was the unconscious students and the destroyed pavement.

"I...I'm really sorry about this. I don't know how I lost control of all this magic." She told Raven, who looked at her with concerned golden eyes.

"Aisha, I don't know if I should be saying this, but I think you've learned enough. Stop pursuing your magic-enhancing studies." Aisha looked up in shock as Raven pointed to the destruction surrounding them. "Having too much magic is also appalling as well as amazing. When someone as magically talented as you loses control of their powers, things like this happen."

"It won't happen again!" Aisha burst out, her eyes open in shock at what was being said to her. Raven shook his head and walked away to assist another student into a wheelchair.

"You don't know that, Grape Head." Elsword walked up to her, his tone serious and his red eyes narrowed. "If I wasn't there to bring you back to the real world, you would have killed everyone here without any regrets."

"That's not true! The reason why I lost control was because of you, goddammit!" The purplenette yelled. "If you hadn't pissed me off so goddamn much, this never would have happened!"

Elsword opened his mouth to speak, but the Elemental Master cut in.

"If I end up losing everything because of you, I'll…I'll…" She angrily trailed off, unable to form proper words. "Just know…I hate you, Elsword!" She slapped him across the face and ran away, leaving behind a smoking school yard, a frantic Raven talking to the school nurse, and an expressionless Rune Slayer holding his cheek.

* * *

**Time to get serious! Sort of…Idk, did I make the change too quick? From a regular school thing to a thing as big as this? I dunno. I feel like I made it too sudden, but I'm speed rushing the plot.**

**The romance will come later! Gotta get past their hatred and stuff first~ Opinions please~ I nom reviews! Go go go, click that Review button!**

**You know u wanna :3**


	4. Chapter 4

**A.N. Oh dear lord, you guys spoil me with reviews so much *tears of happiness* 11 reviews for that one little chapter. I guess I'm updating sooner than I thought because of that! :D**

**All because of one small plot bunny attack that came when I was spacing out in class- it turned into a story I actually want to continue! Thank you to all my readers for support and opinions!**

**Classes:**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer**

**Aisha: Elemental Master**

**Raven: Reckless Fist**

**Rena: Grand Archer**

**Eve: Code Empress**

**Disclaimer: I don't own :P**

* * *

Summer was a brutal season. Not only was it ridiculously hot, but the bright sunlight stabbed eyeballs until everyone's vision was a mess of black dots. People left and right found themselves with intense sunburns and came down with those dratted summer colds. Because screw logic, right?

Aisha wiped her brow with her arm, her Elemental Master coat discarded long ago due to the heat. A thick book was tucked under her arm, the title reading "Advanced Rune Translations for Summoning". The girl quickly strode over to the cooling shade of a big oak tree, where the widespread leafy branches proved to be a trustworthy shelter from the high temperature. Immediately, the purplenette sighed with relief at the lower temperature in the dimness. She sat herself in between two cozy roots and began reading, amethyst eyes scanning the page from left to right.

But suddenly, Aisha slammed her book shut and closed her eyes for a moment before reopening them. She sighed unhappily and stared up at the clear blue sky.

Why. Just why? Her mind flashed back to yesterday's events, when she snapped and lost control over her magic. How could she have reacted so badly to Elsword's teasing?

_I must have a perfectionist complex,_ Aisha thought to herself, tapping her chin with a pale finger. _The stress of getting in trouble for the first time in my life after trying so hard to avoid it might have set me on the edge of the fence, where Elsword unknowingly tipped me over with his teasing._

Her body flared with annoyance. Because of him, she got into so much trouble yesterday. Raven had brought her to the school nurse after everyone injured was taken care of, where she had gotten a light reprimand along with medicine and bandages. Afterwards, the principal came to her and informed her that her title may be temporarily removed depending on the council's opinion of her little show of accidental magic flaunting. It was only with hours of arguing and struggling that she managed to hold on to her title- however, she had to accept a necklace that would suppress her emotions and powers to prevent another chaotic occurrence.

Said necklace felt icy and unfamiliar against her throat, like a cold steel knife. Aisha fingered it tentatively and leaned against the trunk of the tree.

Even after all that crap, she was given a fierce scolding by her parents about carelessly losing control of her powers, and then was promptly sent up to her room to study more.

It. Wasn't. Her. Damn. Fault. The Elemental Master gritted her teeth at the recent memories. She rubbed her temples with her hand and stood up. The lunch period was almost over, and she didn't even start eating yet. Better get a quick bite of food or two so she can stay awake in class.

The purplenette wandered over to the food stand, where the smell of cooking meats and soup invaded her nose. "I'll take some miso soup please. No rice." Aisha said to the lunch lady, who nodded brusquely.

After receiving her food, she went back to her spot by the oak tree, slowly sipping her soup. Regardless of how hot the soup was, it was still delicious and filled her stomach just enough to the point that she wouldn't pass out from hunger in the middle of the day.

She never ate much anyways. It explains why her body was so slim and skinny when all the other girls in school flaunted gorgeous curves and hips. It only made her want to hide more under her coat, which is why she wore it. No one would notice her lack of figure if they couldn't see it, after all.

Aisha finished her soup and set the empty bowl aside, reaching out to her left to pick up her book. To her mild surprise, her fingers landed on the empty grass. She must've left her book somewhere near the food stand when she went to get her lunch.

Aisha walked over to the food stand again, moving around people left and right. Where was that book? She finally found it lying on a table after a few minutes and strode over to it, about to pick it up.

A manicured hand slammed down onto the book cover. The purplenette jumped in slight surprise and gradually followed the arm up to see some tan-skinned girl with heavy makeup and pink hair. **(AN: Chloe :3)**

"Bitch." Red lips opened up and curled into a sneer. "So, apparently yesterday you were flirting with Els?"

"Els…?" Aisha trailed off at the unfamiliar name. Then it hit her. "Oh, you mean Elsword?"

"Yeah." Another girl came up behind Ms. Makeup and cocked her hip sassily, her ridiculously short skirt riding up to expose even more skin. "Stay away from him, you disgusting whore. Go slime up someone else with your nerdy books."

"Couldn't have said it any better, Ivy." Makeup Face laughed cruelly. "He doesn't like nerds like you. So just get the fuck out of the picture, slut." Aisha's eyes narrowed. Telling her to stay away from Elsword was one thing, but calling her all these names was a whole different story.

"Slut, you say? Look at yourself, hypocrite." The purplenette sniffed delicately in disgust, like she smelled the stink of wet garbage on a hot day. "Maybe if airheaded prostitutes-in-training like you actually picked up a book once in your life, something else besides dicks would fill your head."

_Ooh, burn._ Aisha snickered inwardly at the shocked expressions on Ivy's and Makeup's face. Then their faces morphed to rage. Pain exploded in her cheek.

Breathing hard, Makeup lowered her ringed hand from where she had just slapped Aisha. "That was for slapping my Els yesterday. And this," She grabbed one of the Elemental Master's pigtails and yanked hard, forcing Aisha to her knees. "Is for being a smart-mouthed bitch who doesn't know her place."

Purple eyes widened when heels were positioned above her head, undoubtly about to land hard on her skull. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the inevitable shocking pain.

If only she could kill them each with a fireball. It would be almost no effort at all to do so…but the necklace blocked her magic. The purplenette held in her breath as the seconds went by.

"What the hell is going on here?"

The three girls looked up to see, much to Aisha's annoyance, a certain Rune Slayer who was holding his lunch tray with a deadpan expression. The purplenette facepalmed. She couldn't even get bullied without the redhead butting in and stalking her, huh?

"Oh, hey Els!" Makeup Bitch said in a falsetto cheerful tone. "Remember me? I'm Chloe. I'm just setting a useless whore in her place." Aisha clenched her jaw at the insult and looked away when Chloe kicked her lightly and Elsword's eyes met hers.

"Let me rephrase that. What exactly are you doing to Aisha?" He asked, setting down his tray with a clang.

"Oh, we're just-" Ivy started. Aisha interrupted.

"Get off of me, you whores. Your object of lust is here, now can I get my book back and leave?" The purplenette spat, shoving away Chloe's shoe and picking herself off the ground. Chloe flushed an ugly shade of red that clashed with her tan skin. The bitch whipped out a dagger from her heeled boots.

"Go after I'm finished with you, you disgusting-" The knife was a silver blur as it was whipped down in Aisha's direction. The Elemental Master shut her eyes tight. Stupid necklace prevented her from teleporting also. Damn, this was going to hurt.

_Ting._

The weapon went spiraling out of Chloe's hand and landed in the water fountain. Elsword coolly lowered his hand from where he had shot a rune to intercept the dagger about to pierce the magician.

"I can see what you guys were about to do. Scram." The redhead said, his tone low and even somewhat malicious. "I don't have time to deal with sluts."

"I'll go if you give me your number!" Ivy offered, looking slightly taken aback by the redhead's reaction. Elsword's eyes flashed and he glared hard at Ivy until she squeaked and hid behind Chloe.

"Get lost." The two bitches stammered and tried to make their escape as smooth as possible with failed results. Elsword offered his hand to help Aisha up, but the purplenette swatted away his hand.

"Why'd you do that?" The Elemental Master asked suspiciously. "You hate me, I hate you. You should've left me alone. I was handling it fine."

"Handling it fine, my ass. You would've been stabbed in the head and killed." Red eyes met purple, the latter looking away nervously.

"Don't blame me. They wanted to kill me for supposedly flirting with you yesterday." Aisha snorted and shot a piercing stare at the boy in front of her. "What's in it for you?"

"Hrm?" Elsword picked up his tray again and adjusted his bag.

"What do you plan on getting out of this? Am I in debt now or something?" The purplenette huffed. _Sounds like something the jerk would do._

"Me?" The Rune Slayer flashed her a small smirk. "Nothing, of course. I did it out of pure unadulterated kindness from the bottom of my angelic soul."

"That's a lie."

"Alright, fine you got me." Elsword turned around and waved at her without looking. "It was because of yesterday."

"Yesterday…?" Echoed Aisha. The redhead had already disappeared into the crowd. "H-Hey! What do you mean by yesterday?"

He was gone. The Elemental Master picked up her book and went back to her tree spot, musing over this.

_Maybe it was an apology…?_

* * *

"Oberon! Do you happen to know where Father is?" A young girl with plaited silver hair in buns rushed down the staircase of a grand mansion. "I believe it is time for me to attend that prestigious school."

"I do not know, my sincerest apologies, my lady." Her butler bowed before putting aside the dusting cloth. "Perhaps you may find it more suitable to inquire about this to Ophelia. She is currently in your bedroom, dusting the curtains."

"Thank you." Eve nodded curtly and rushed to her room. She threw aside the elaborately decorated door to reveal the figure of her servant attending to her windows. "Ophelia, where is my Father?"

"The Master is in his studies, my lady. He is busy at the moment, perhaps you should wait for a little while?" The black haired maid responded and tied up the newly dusted curtain with a silken ribbon.

"Oh, forget that." The silver haired girl sniffed, flicking the small hair piece that extended from her tied braids. "I shall see to it that I handle everything myself then."

"As you wish, my lady." Opehlia curtsied and started to dust the other curtain.

Eve walked daintily out onto the balcony and relaxed in the warm sunlight. "Aisha…I think it's about time we meet again, my old friend. I've missed you."

* * *

**Yeee! Done done done! And Eve is introduced! Btw she's human in this story. I love humans xD (quoting Izaya from DuRaRaRa). Oberon and Ophelia are also human. By the way, I updated my Bio so go there if ya wanna know stalker info~**

**So how was it? :3**


	5. Chapter 5

**A.N. Hnnnng I hate it when you're chatting with someone and then you randomly disconnect for some unknown reason and then it turns out your router went screwy but you can't fix it no matter how much you pull on the wires. Now my BM friend will be forever wondering why I left in the middle of a conversation about Amateur/KirbyBlader and cake. **

**And I met G123u in game! Pure coincidence that one of my deviantart friends messaged me to help her train a fellow CN student on Eve and I met her. Let's meet again :3**

**We gotta teach each other how to spring step after all. I'm not so good at it in actual matches so we better master it together. ;w;**

**On a brighter note, I managed to get S rank on my Rune Slayer! Finally! And cap him also! After abusing him so much, I think he deserves the stupid rank and a long rest :D (Now to get dat Henir wep and grendize the rest of his set…)**

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**RS: *groaning in a gloomy corner and treating his bruises from the abuse he got from being forced to fight gear-abusing pro's* Are you kidding me? That's bullshit. You'll abuse me to SSS rank even if you had to sacrifice your fingers to do so.**

**Me: Nope, watcha talking about? :3 –innocent look-**

**RS: Just die a horrible death, Desu. =w=**

* * *

**Classes:**

**Elsword: Rune Slayer**

**Aisha: Elemental Master**

**Rena: Grand Archer**

**Raven: Reckless Fist**

**Eve: Code Empress**

**Chung: Deadly Chaser**

**Disclaimer: I don't own!**

* * *

"Elsword. We have to talk." Aisha's face was serious, purple eyes flat and cold. "It's about yesterday. What did you mean when you said "It was for yesterday" after you got rid of Chloe and Ivy?"

Silence. Then Aisha facepalmed and threw herself onto her bed, discarding her mirror. She sighed. _Dammit, that sounds so stupid. What if I…_

She grabbed the mirror again and put on a shy expression."Elsword…we…we have to talk. I was wondering if you could explain to me what you…Goddammit this sounds ridiculous too." The purplenette dropped the fake expression and smacked herself with the reflective tool in her hand.

"Gah! Why can't I do this?! Do I seriously lack the social skills to confront some guy and talk to him?!" The Elemental Master whined to herself, kicking her legs up in a childish tantrum all by herself. She flipped over onto her tootsie-roll shaped pillow and hugged it, laying there for a few quiet moments. There was a slow, cautious knock on the door.

_Knock Knock_

"Honey, you all right in there?" Her mother called from outside her room. Aisha rolled her eyes and buried her face in the pillow.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Mom. I'm just having a bit of trouble trying to come up with a way to talk to a guy."

Her doorknob clicked and turned, the door opening to reveal her lavender-haired mother in a stained teddy bear apron. "Problem with a guy? Oh my goodness, my little Aisha is suddenly growing up!" The woman squealed happily and clutched her cheeks. "What's his name?" She asked eagerly. The younger one of the two deadpanned and gave the older a flat stare.

"Mom, it's not like that. He's just some bad-mannered bastard that said some really confusing things to me yesterday." The Elemental Master grumbled. "His name is Elsword." She quickly added upon seeing the look on her parent's face. Said person smiled like it was her birthday and Christmas at the same time.

"You know, when a guy is mean to you, that means he likes you." Her mother chuckled and wiped her hands on the apron adorning her neck. "I think this Elsword boy has a crush on my adorable little Aisha!" Fingers pinched a disgruntled looking Aisha's cheeks.

"Mom, stop it." The purplenette managed to struggle out of her parent's hold. "It's not like that. He's a rude, jerkish, arrogant, smart-mouthed, despicable, impolite-" Aisha was tackled by her mom with a hug. "-IDIOT!" She finished after wriggling out from under her laughing mother.

"Oh, Aisha, you're acting just the way I did when I fell in love with your father." The woman's eyes grew misty for a moment before going back to their usual bright and happy violet. If not for her lighter hair color, she and Aisha would've been literally identical. "Have fun with making this Elsword boy your boyfriend!"

The purplenette grabbed her mom's hand and dragged her out the door. "Mom! Not helping! Please get out." She shoved the woman out the door and closed the door. Right before the door slammed shut, her mom quickly hooted at her.

"Boys like girls who are unique and hold the correct values! Be yourself!"

_Slam. Click._

The door closed and locked. The Elemental Master huffed and slid down the door, landing and sitting with her back against it. Now, about confronting the redhead…Aisha buried her face in her hands, at a complete loss as to what to do.

"_Ding! You have a new message."_ Her phone beeped, its screen flashing with a name she hadn't seen in years. Eve.

"Eve…?" Aisha's eyes grew wide as she rushed over to her phone and fumbled to flip it open. Sure enough, it was her old friend. "Eve!" She quickly read the text message.

"_Hi Aisha! Haven't talked to you in a while, I've missed you sooo much. Omg, Father actually finally established a firm branch of the Nasod Company here. I'll be going to your school starting tomorrow. Just thought I'd let you know beforehand :)_

_Oberon and Ophelia are still as uptight as ever :( _

_Although…shhh, it's my sneaky suspicion, but I think Oberon has a crush on Ophelia. The poor sap! She's as expressionless as a table yet he still fell for her! It's so cute I want to hug him but then he'd freak out and send me to the hospital. But I've been spying on those two since last week and I think Ophelia even agreed to go out for dinner with him on their day off. Haha!_

_Mind if I sleep over your house? I totally miss you and your mom and ahhh, I can't wait. Screw formalities, I'll jump hug you the second I see you, and Oberon will throw a fit! Can't wait. Omg. I'm like spazzing as I write this text. Gtg to sleep now, cya tmmrw! _

_Eve."_

A tear slipped down an amethyst eye. Eve…Oh how Aisha had missed her. They had been friends ever since they were drooling toddlers, but the other had to move away due to her family's business. Now that she was back, it would be a whole big tearful reunion.

The last time Aisha had seen her was when they were both young and inexperienced with fighting and magic. She wondered how her old friend had changed. Was she pretty or cute? Was she gorgeous or Lolita? Tall or petite? The purplenette sighed at the new possibilities.

The only person that probably didn't change much was her. Boring body, boring face, boring personality. What if she and Eve didn't click anymore? What if her old friend got disgusted by her unappealing appearance and became friends with the popular bitch girls?

She quickly shook her head. No, that wouldn't happen. They shared so many memories that appearance was trivial. There was no way Eve would ditch her for the hags that bullied her yesterday.

Maybe school wouldn't be so bad after all. If Eve was there, the magician wouldn't be lonely and actually have someone to talk to. She can actually think of school as a happy place rather than a hellish…well, hell.

The purplenette connected the charger to her phone and pulled on her pajamas, the thin mint-green clothes wrapping around her slim body as light as a feather. She tucked herself into bed and shut off the lamp next to her, snuggling into her blanket like a caterpillar.

Tomorrow would be a good day, she thought to herself. Aisha fell asleep with a small smile on her face.

* * *

"Mom! I'm going to go to school now!" Aisha called, grabbing her bag and hurrying out the door with a piece of toast held in between her teeth. The door knob clattered as the purplenette frantically jiggled it to open, eager to get out of the house and start her school day.

"Sure, honey! Have fun and remember to eat well for lunch!" Her mother called from somewhere in the kitchen, most likely washing the dirty dishes from their breakfast. Aisha nodded even if her mother couldn't see and quickly dashed to the sidewalk.

Today was the day her school life would change. No longer would the no-life, socially awkward, nerdy Aisha be in existence. With Eve by her side, they would make school into a fun place where she can get away from tiresome studying. How ironic. The Elemental Master grinned to herself.

Even if she was still forced to study, the necklace wouldn't allow her to actually practice it and improve anyways. The school staff could complain all they want and all the blame would be shifted over to the principal in the end. Amethyst eyes gleamed with excitement as Aisha's usual slow and gloomy walk morphed into uncharacteristic skipping. The day already seemed to be brighter and more positive.

Currently, she was about six blocks away from school. Some other students that took a similar path as her were looking at her strangely, probably wondering why the usually serious nerd was looking as happy as a sunflower on a bright day.

A luxurious limousine parked up beside her in the street. Curious, the walking purplenette paused to glance at it and immediately recognized the driver. Oberon! She couldn't help the slow grin that formed on her face. The pale, dark-haired man got out of his car and walked around the vehicle to formally open the back door, revealing a beautiful porcelain-skinned girl seated inside.

"Oh my god…" Eve started, her rosy pink lips opening to form a small "o". "Aisha, you look so cute!" The silver haired girl dashed out of the car and hugged Aisha, who was flushing slightly at the compliment.

"Pfft, don't lie to me, you're like a perfect china doll!" The other exclaimed, hugging the Nasod Company's heiress with the force of an elephant, leaning back to closely examine her best friend's features, noting the elegant silver hair neatly rolled into braided buns and the small crown shaped accessory. "I've missed you so much!"

"Same here! I was worried you wouldn't recognize me, even if I barely changed and- oh em gee, just look at you! You're adorable and so pretty!" Golden eyes tilted up slightly at the corners in happiness before flickering over to her driver. "Oberon, why aren't you wearing your visor?"

"Apologies, my lady, but an unfortunate event occurred in the kitchen this morning, resulting in my visor being cracked. It is currently under repair at the moment. I shall have it back by midday." Eve walked over to her butler and slapped him lightly, who twitched.

"Stop it with the formalities. We are in the presence of an old childhood friend and I do not wish to overwhelm her with the ignorant so-called manners of the wealthy." The Empress said before smirking. "And while we're still conversing with you, how about you tell us what restaurant you are going to take Ophelia to tonight?"

The man coughed uneasily into a fancy handkerchief he took out from his suit pocket and turned his slightly red face to the side. "Ah…uh…What restaurant would you be talking about?" He stammered, either from the discomfort of not talking without formalities or from embarrassment.

Aisha leered at the driver next to Eve, who mirrored the same expression- best friends totally in sync. "Apparently I heard from a silver birdie that you have feelings for-"

"-a certain maid in our house." The Nasod heiress finished, a small smirk on her flawless face. "Don't be in denial, or else I'll straight up tell her myself."

"M-Miss Aisha, Mistress Eve, that is not- I, uh, do not believe this is the right time to discuss such- Would you ladies like a ride to school?" The flustered butler sighed and quickly changed the subject, shaking his head. Aisha merely snickered and nodded, hopping into the car next to Eve. A free ride to spare her the troubles of walking another six blocks, not bad in exchange for stopping their bullying of the poor driver. For now.

Who can blame them, she'd known Oberon since he was hired, and it was so fun to tease the poor guy. She could see his red tinged ears all the way from her seat, and apparently Eve did also, as the silver haired girl nudged her, giggled, and pointed to them.

"So what did I miss for the last 8 years?" Aisha casually said, leaning comfortably back into the black leather interior of the car. Eve puffed her cheeks in thought and replied.

"Well…I do have a boyfriend now. He's the son of a CEO of a partnering company, Hamel Technology, which is great, since it'll strengthen business bonds. Father approves." The girl blushed. "His name is Chung."

The purplenette's eyes bugged. "A boyfriend? A _boyfriend_?!" She grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her. "What's he like? Is he cute? Does he try to take advantage of your company or does he legitimately love you?"

"Woah, one question at a time. He's so hot; I'll introduce him to you one day. And no, it wasn't arranged, it was purely a coincidence that we met in a café and fell in love." Eve cupped her face with one hand dreamily. "I wonder what he's up to."

Aisha laughed and fell back into her seat, releasing Eve. "Oh, young love. Go make thirty babies and make me the godmother, kay?" She laughed harder when her friend blushed a bright crimson, outshining the red of the traffic light they stopped at by three folds.

"That's not- Oh Aisha, you pervert! What happened to the innocent flower girl I knew since I was a kid?"

"She died and turned into a wonderful fireball chucking pervert, of course." Aisha said, waving her hands creepily at the other jokingly. "Whoosh, fear my pervert hands!"

Eve lightly slapped the hands away from her, still blushing. "Oh, and how about you? What's happening with you these days?"

Aisha's face fell. Could she really tell Eve what she had become after she disappeared from her life?

Well, they were friends since they were young so…

"I…I'm not proud of who I am. In school, I'm a nerd that no one likes. I'm known for having a short temper, perfectionist complex, and book worming various textbooks all day. I get bullied by popular girls every day and…"

Eve's eyes grew dimmer. "Aisha…I'm so sorry. But we can fix that! I'm here and now school will be better for us both!"

The Elemental Master gave a small smile. "Let me continue. There's also this new boy and he's being a jerk to me, and only me. To everyone else he's nicer and more…easy to hang around with, but to me, he's a total bastard. Oh, and two days ago, he said this really confusing thing after he got me in trouble."

"What did he say?"

Aisha recounted the story, watching Eve's expression carefully. It turned from careful listening, to serious, to slightly annoyed, and then for some reason, a smirk.

"Ah I see. He likes you." The silver haired girl said bluntly. Aisha deadpanned.

"How weird, my mom said the exact same thing." The Elemental Master tapped her chin. "But if a guy really does like a girl, why do they be stupid and be mean? Which totally renders your arguments useless."

Eve raised an elegant eyebrow and snickered. "You'll see, Aisha, you'll see. Keep telling yourself that."

"Well, I-"

"We have arrived in school, my ladies. I apologize for cutting your chat short, but-" Eve reached over and smacked Oberon in the head.

"No formalities."

"As you wish, my lady- Ack!" Another smack.

"What did I say?"

"Alrighty then, Miss Eve. Have a nice day, you two!" Oberon, with much self control, did not get out of the driver's seat to open the door for them, leaving the two girls to let themselves out on their own.

"So, as I was saying, your argument is totally invalid when you said-" Aisha continued from where they left off. She bumped into something hard and fell back, feeling Eve catch her and support her.

"…Elsword." The purplenette muttered, looking up at the redhead who caused her much pain for the last few days. Strangely though, he didn't respond or even look at her. Instead, he looked at Eve. Ruby eyes glinted as he glared hard at the silver haired girl.

"What are you doing here…Eve." He hissed angrily, a rune sparking into his twitching fingers.

Aisha's eyes grew big as she looked back and forth between the redhead and silverette. _How do they know each other already?_

* * *

**I, uhhh, think that's the end of chapter 5? How was it? :3**


	6. Chapter 6

**A.N. Warning. One very hyperactive happy Desu here.**

**So many reviews for the last chapter! *happy dance* I'm so happy happy happy happy- *slapped by Eve* I'll shut up now…QQ**

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**Answer to Rinkushido's PM:**

**Yes, yes it is. My story is rather cliché and predictable, but I'm sure somewhere deep inside everyone, we all have a little love for cliché moments and things. I've already watched the first anime you mentioned, and heard about the second. As for the lacking word count per new update, I'm sorry QQ. I can't write too much before I get irked with the numerous pages on Microsoft. It's a little pet peeve I have- when files get too long on a document, it makes me want to stop and leave it there. Also, I apologize for not responding through PM, but I can never keep up well with those, because most of my Fanfiction activity is done on my phone.**

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**I would respond to the all my reviews, but there's too many for the last one…So from now on, I'll respond to two random reviews per new update!**

**Rosamanelle: Oh, how do they know each other? IT SHALL BE REVEALED IN THIS CHAPTER. Maybe. Wuahaha. As for Oberon…We all love to abuse him. Me especially, since he's a derpy servant that's there as a punching bag for Eve's angry moments (refers to Code Empress's losing poses.)**

**RyotaEdge: Yes yes, it's time for THAT cliché moment. I'm pretty sure everyone saw this coming xD And yup, you were correct, you get a cookie. *passes cookie***

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**Without any further ado, here is Chapter 6! And I give up on listing the classes; everyone knows them by now anyways. **

**Random quick note: I finally got the guts to ask and ended up joining the Fanfiction guild. If you're in the guild, here's a hint: I'm a level 60 RS. Good luck! :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own!**

* * *

"I said, why the hell are you here, Eve?" Elsword said coldly, crushing the rune in his fist and making it dissolve into sparks. Aisha stuttered and glanced at her friend worriedly.

"Eve…you know him?"

"Yes, unfortunately, I had the unpleasant incidence of meeting him a few years ago." Eve pursed her lips and regarded the redhead with icy eyes. "I have nothing to say to the likes of you."

"I beg to differ. You owe me an explanation." Red eyes narrowed as another rune was accidently summoned and dispelled via crushing.

"Explanation? Explanation for what?" Aisha knew she was being an annoying intruder into their personal affairs, but she wanted to know. She tugged on Eve's sleeve like a child trying to get their mother's attention.

"Don't worry, I'll explain later." The Nasod heiress stated, giving Aisha a quick warning glance before her eyes flickered back to the Rune Slayer. "I don't owe you anything. I thought we finished this 3 years ago."

"Oh, believe me, there's still a lot to figure out." Elsword chuckled in a weird, half-evil way that made him sound almost bitter. That tiny but noticeable smirk on his lips didn't serve to make him look any less malicious either. Golden eyes narrowed as Eve quickly took Aisha by the hand and turned away.

"I disagree. I shall remove myself from this area and you and I will not talk to each other again. Consider it a truce." The girl said as she walked away with the purplenette in tow. Both girls felt the burning sensation of crimson eyes staring after them as they made their way to the girl's bathroom.

"Okay, now can I get an explanation?" The Elemental Master raised an eyebrow and gave her best friend a piercing stare once they reached the bathroom and were hidden from other prying eyes. The two females leaned against the cool tiled walls of the empty restroom.

"Elsword and I…we used to be together, before I met Chung. It was an arranged relationship, since Father was trying to repair bonds between our company when it wasn't doing so well and one of what would be an excellent potential money supplier." Eve started. "Elsword's family has a bank that recently has been doing extremely well, yet lacks employees. If our company was to merge with them, both of us would prosper."

"But how come he seems like he hates you?"

Eve avoided Aisha's eyes and clasped her fingers together near her stomach. "Something…Something went wrong when I tried to do the economic part of our relationship. Elsword actually did fall in love with me; he didn't realize that both our families were using us. When I tried to transfer the money and explain to him that we were only together for business reasons, he flew into a rage and the relationship…ended harshly." The silver haired girl closed her eyes and a sigh escaped her lips. The purplenette next to her patted her shoulder comfortingly and gave Eve a hug.

"Then I guess it really would be best if you two didn't talk to each other this year." Aisha puffed her cheeks in thought. "It was good that you told him that he shouldn't talk to you, and vice versa."

"Do you really believe he'll do that? Regardless of what I just said to him." Eve turned around to face her, her golden eyes misty. "Think about the type of person he is. Would he really listen to what anyone tells him if he himself doesn't want to? If he doesn't want to listen to anyone, then he won't."

"That's sad but true." The Elemental Master twitched. "Then it looks like eventually you'll have to explain the truth to him."

"That's the thing, I already did. But he still believes that there's more to it." Eve covered her face in a rare show of frustration. "Everything I told you, I told him in the past. And everything I said was the entire story."

"Why not just straight up tell him that? Everything you said was the whole story. Enough said."

"Weren't you listening? He believes there's more to it. Another thing is that he knows about my current relationship with Chung."

"What? How?"

"I don't know. I'm guessing he has a good idea of what goes on in the business world; after all, his family is extremely well known and actually somewhat notorious for gossip and information, even if they're a bank. There was bound to be some sort of rumor about the Nasod Company's heiress and Hamel Tech's CEO's son being seen together."

Aisha sighed and glanced at the clock ticking away above them. "Thanks for explaining this to me, Eve." She said soothingly, rubbing her friend's forearm in a gesture of comfort. "But class is about to start, so we better get going."

Eve wiped at her eyes, much to Aisha's shock. Her friend, usually so composed and cheerful, actually had shed a few tears without her noticing. "Alright, let's go. My face isn't too red, right?" A watery smile was given to the purplenette, who nodded dumbly.

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"My name is Eve, and I look forward to being an accepted member of this class." The silver haired girl finished her introduction curtly. The teacher assigned her to the seat a couple of tables to the left of Aisha, raising an eyebrow at the girl's short intro.

Said purplenette was worried, biting her lip as she blankly stared at the thick book she was currently 'reading'. She kept glancing up at Elsword and Eve, watching their expressions. The whole time, the redhead was looking at Eve in a way that suggested that he was trying to see through her, straight into her soul and delve into her entire being. It even made Aisha feel awkward while she was watching them. The Nasod heiress seemed to be uncomfortable as well, constantly shifting her weight and unconsciously messing up her perfect hair while she was introducing herself next to the teacher.

The redhead was leaning back into his seat, in a way that suggested defiance- as if he was challenging the teacher to tell him off for sitting that way when he himself was angry and not in the mood to follow rules. His chair was tilted back on its two back legs and his arms were crossed. The boy's bangs were almost covering his eyes, yet it was visible that Elsword's eyes seemed darker than usual, blood red instead of the usual crimson, as he stared at the currently seated silver haired girl at the front of the room.

Aisha flipped the page to maintain her act of paying attention in class. Eve was twitchy and kept shifting in her seat, folding and unfolding her hands. This was unusual. She never openly showed so much discomfort. The purplenette tapped her pencil on the table and licked her lips nervously. They would have to deal with Elsword's problem at lunch, where most likely, he would confront them and demand Eve's time. Thin fingers rubbed her temple and she sighed for the third time today.

_This sure is going to be a pain…_

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Eve and Aisha sat together by the oak tree, where the Elemental Master's usual alone spot was. This time, however, she had a friend to accompany her, and the two were chatting up a storm.

"Anyone I should avoid here?"

"Hm, I'd say Chloe, Ivy, and the rest of the gang. But those two are the nastiest ones there."

"Oh alright. Earlier, they tried to ask me to eat lunch with them. I declined." Eve popped a fish roll into her mouth.

"Good. I'm pretty sure she wanted to make sure the Graped-headed Nerd didn't make any friends."

"Pfft as if. And anything else?"

"Uhh, a few rumors. Our gym coach is in love with the school nurse. Mr Seung is rumored to keep chocolate in his desk. The science teacher is sweet on Miss Ariel, the assistant principal." Aisha chewed a mouthful of rice and swallowed. "Nothing much."

"Cool. I visited the nurse last period for a band-aid. She's so nice and pretty!"

"I know! No wonder Raven fell for her!" Aisha gushed. Her own temporary teacher-crush aside, no one could deny that the two teachers were meant to be together. "Hey, tell me if I'm wrong, but is Raven asking her out right now?" She pointed across the field, where the two far-away figures of the coach and nurse seemed to be chatting.

Eve leaned forward and almost dropped her chopsticks. "I think they are! Hold up, I have something for this." She dug out some sort of mechanical object from her pocket and held it up to her eye. "Yup, they are. Ah, look! They're holding hands now and walking out through the gates! And Rena is blushing!"

The purplenette snatched the object away from her friend and examined it. It was a mini binocular…or monocular, since it fit over only one eye. "You're kidding, right- Holy crap! They are! OTP right there!"

The two girls squealed and laughed. Eve stole an egg roll from Aisha's bento, who in turn ate one of Eve's fried tofus. Both got into a play fight, tackling and rolling around on the soft grass.

"Oi, Eve."

That snappish tone. Aisha's face immediately soured and her friend's face grew flat and emotionless. The two girls got off of each other and dusted the grass from their uniform as they silently looked up at the redhead.

"Elsword. I knew this would happen." Eve pursed her lips. "I know you think there's more to what happened in the past, but everything I said remains true and unchanged."

"There's nothing else to it? Really?" The last word was said with such a bitter tone that Aisha winced.

"Yes, there's nothing more to it. Can't you leave Eve alone?" The purplenette just had to butt in, her purple orbs meeting Elsword's angry red ones. "It's bad enough you won't leave me alone in school; don't bother to drag her into this also."

"You have nothing to do with what happened, so stay out of this, Aisha." It was the first time Elsword had spoken to her by her name. The Elemental Master was taken aback and Eve took advantage of the resulting silence.

"Don't you take that tone with Aisha. Sure, she had nothing to do with this, but no need to be rude." The Nasod heiress snapped, her eyes flashing. "Everything I told you in the past is everything that happened. Why can't this go through your thick head?"

"Maybe it's because you played with my feelings just to bring your company back to life!" Elsword spat, a rune flickering out of his hand and exploding on the grass with a tiny boom.

"I did nothing of the sort! I was used by my family, just like you were! It's your own fault for not knowing and being hurt afterwards!"

"Shut up!" The Rune Slayer barked. Aisha squeaked and tripped over her bento box at the loud tone Elsword was using. Food spilled everywhere, mixing dirt and rice together in a disgusting mess. "I had to go through so much pain afterwards. Over a petty thing like a broken relationship, our bank was left in chaos. All thanks to a certain somebody who tried to use me as a stepping stone to make her company come out at the top of the business world!"

"I said, I didn't do anything like that!" Eve slapped Elsword, whose face was thrown to the left by the force of her palm. "We were both used, face it, we never even loved each other, and the only reason why we were put together was because of our fathers!"

"I actually did love you. That will remain unchanged in the story." The redhead growled, holding his cheek. "Although, I'm not even sure anymore. All I feel when I think of you is bitterness and hatred."

"It's better if it stays that way." Eve sighed and gently touched Elsword's cheek where she had slapped him. "If we hate each other, at least it'll prevent us from talking to each other ever again."

The redhead roughly thrust his head out of the silver haired girl's hold. Ruby eyes glared spitefully at her. "Don't touch me with those filthy hands of yours. I'm done here." He strode off, leaving the two girls alone again under the rustling branches of the oak tree. Aisha remained quiet but slowly walked over to Eve, who had fallen to her knees.

"I'm sorry, Eve."

"Don't be…At least it's over. For now."

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**I'm gunna cut it here just because I want to. Mainly because my fingers hurt. Weak fingers, yeeee~ So, I had a bit of a problem coming up with a decent reason for Eve and Elsword's hatred, now to get this plot moving. And Chung! What am I supposed to do with the stupid Shooting Star spammer? How do I get him into this story without making him join the school as well? =w=**

**Review please! Oh and sorry for the super duper late update! QQ**


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N. Sorry for the long wait, my peeps! I've been busy working with RubyCrusade for our new collab and I also had to write out that sequel to my almost forgotten oneshot! I was very very mucho busy, which is why this chapter was so late. **

**RS: In other words, you wanted to give an excu-**

**Me: -clamps hand over RS's mouth- Shut up. Shut. Up.**

**RS: =w=;**

**So yes, I apologize again for the really late update, I'm pretty sure I sort of killed you people there with the last chapter. OH! And since I'm close to 100 reviews, the 100****th**** reviewer will get a free oneshot from me! (More work for me, whoopdeedoo, but I didn't expect to get almost a 100 reviews so soon. Gotta celebrate with something, ya know?)**

**So, for the future 100****th**** reviewer, please choose any class of your choice. ANY class. I want to specify the class since I'll be writing a oneshot about the first thing that pops into mind when that particular class is mentioned. Aka an example would be if someone mentioned Infinity Sword, I would automatically think of his porcupine hair (at the moment since it's morning and I have a fuzzy brain) and write a lovely crack fic about it. Most likely it'll be a crackfic, since I'm not very good with romance oneshots.**

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**Review to my reviews~**

**Kanpekinashi: No, no such thing as reviews that are 'too late'. A review is a review, after all. It makes authors happy and encourages them to get off their lazy bum and write the next chapter. And yes, I know Elsword has an attitude, this dense little mother fu- ahem. I'll be giving him a slow character development, but it's hard. Only 6 chapters in and all I'm doing is making him a jerk face. ;w; **

**MineMan42 (Anonymous): Nooo! Anon person! Unless MineMan42 is actually your pen name but…/slapped for being a derp. Anyways, I have yielded to your request of making Elbrat and Aisha's interactions more fuzzy today! Yay! Hope you like it and I hope RuneBoy isn't too OOC in this chapter! :D**

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**Oh and…I was derping around in spar on my RS and then I meet a Raven going by the name of DarkXBlade, who immediately screamed "OMG DESUCHI" on sight. Or whatever, someone was playing on that Raven for a friend who was on vacation. WHO ARE YOU? WHY ARE YOU STALKING ME? HOW DO YEH KNOW ME? I want your actual account dammit, tell me who you are. You say you pvp'ed with me during S1, I don't remember any of that shet! OAO You threatened me to update faster with DEATH and TORTURE, so here! I updated! Now tell me your true identity or else I'll sic my army of chubby Rune Slayers on you! :O ROOWAHHHHHRRRR.**

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**Disclaimer: -coughs politely- I, once again, do not own any rights to Elsword.**

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The next day, Eve didn't come to school, leaving the purplenette alone and by herself at lunch time. Aisha gloomily chewed on her sandwich, the first lunch she had ever brought from home. She had even brought two of them, since she wanted to share it with Eve. Sadly, her silver haired friend had called her up in the morning fifteen minutes before school started and informed her that she wouldn't be attending school today.

Eve sounded really upset on the phone, Aisha recalled. Her friend's tone was low and heavy, and it even seemed like she was crying. Why she would be feeling so sad because of the redhead, she would never understand. He wasn't worth Eve's time, why should her friend be so affected by Elsword?

The Elemental Master took another unhurried bite from her tasteless sandwich, which was actually a well-made fusion of ham, cheese, lettuce, and her mother's favorite unknown sauce. Whatever it was, it usually made her sandwiches taste the finest of the finest. Usually, but not today.

Aisha was not in the mood for eating. The bread crumbled in her mouth and the purplenette dutifully swallowed it down with a sip of water. She watched all of the other students in her grade scream and laugh in the outdoors, enjoying their free period outside the confines of a classroom. A soccer ball was passed around a group of hooting boys, each team distinguished by a colorful bandana wrapped around an arm or head. The Elemental Master gave a long sigh of melancholy, tucking her knees to her chest.

The inner nerd inside of her itched to take out a book and read again, but this time Aisha didn't have one with her. She was determined to squish that loser side of herself and transform into someone who was outgoing and actually had a social life. She no longer carried around the books she used to bury her face in for hours on end, but old habits apparently really do die hard.

Amethyst eyes closed as she leaned against the comforting trunk of the oak tree that she had been attached to since school started. Aisha drifted off into a half-sleep, a similar state of spacing out and daydreaming with her eyes closed. Her breathing slowed down as the shouting of the other students turned into a lullaby.

A rustling noise next to her awakened her out of her cloud-like floating state. Tired and sleepy eyes took in the sight of red hair and crimson eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Aisha yawned curiously, forcing herself not to sound hostile after what happened yesterday. Eve wasn't here with her today, what the hell did Elsword want with her?

"Why, I can't even sit here with you?" The redhead asked lightly, leaning back into the tree next to her. His arms were folded behind his head in a typical relaxed pose. Aisha frowned.

"No, I don't mean that." She responded, fingering the lacy part of her coat sleeve nervously. _Yes I do. Go away. _She wasn't comfortable with talking to other people without Eve around. Being alone and talking to someone other than her closest friend made her feel like her awkward geek self again.

Red eyes looked at her with an 'I-know-something-that-you-don't' expression. "Something tells me you're not telling the truth, but no matter. I won't be leaving anyways." He smirked, but it wasn't one full of taunting or haughtiness. In fact, it sounded like he was almost joking with her. "I just felt like sharing my lunch period with you. Feel flattered."

"You have your fangirls to worry about. Go with them, I'm pretty sure they'd simply love to have you at their table for lunch." The purplenette pointed out, raising a thin eyebrow. "Why would you even want to stay with me after what happened yesterday?"

"Oh that." The Rune Slayer snorted uncaringly, flipping the bangs that covered his left eye. "That had nothing to do with you. It only concerned Eve and I, you weren't a part of it." Elsword paused. "I…I'm sorry you had to see that." He added, looking away as if the apology was too embarrassing for him.

Did the great and arrogant Elsword just say sorry to her? Not to mention that they're actually having a normal conversation for once instead of insulting and getting irritated at each other. Aisha gaped, her mouth open in a small 'o' shape. The redhead turned his head to catch a glimpse of her shocked face and snickered.

"Close your mouth or else I'll put something in it." A finger poked right below her bottom lip and above the edge of her chin. The purplenette leaned away quickly, weirded out by the unfamiliar touch.

"Oh, shut up!" Aisha huffed, shutting her mouth with a click, her teeth clacking together. She bit her tongue accidently. "Ow!"

Elsword chuckled at the sight. "A bit of a spazz, aren't you?" He teased lightly. Aisha flushed in embarrassment, her cheeks tinting red.

"I said, shut up!" She exclaimed, smacking the Rune Slayer on the head without thinking. Then she realized what she had just done. She had just hit Elsword…on the head…for an insignificant reason…right when it seemed like they would be able to hold a decent conversation. Oh boy, talk about ruining the pleasant atmosphere.

The redhead looked at her with slight interest, with a total 'did-you-just-really-do-that' written plainly across his face. The Elemental Master gritted her teeth and crossed her arms childishly, turning away from Elsword and looking in the opposite direction. Her ears burned. Why did she get so carried away and end up doing something that stupid? Now they wouldn't ever be able to hold another peaceful conversation like that.

Back to hatred it is.

Or maybe not. A light tug on her pigtails made her look back in inquisitiveness. The redhead was looking at her with such an amused gaze, she wanted to do nothing else but smack him again.

"Why are you even here with me? Just go back to your friends." Aisha said bitterly. "You have plenty of them; don't spend your time here with this unexciting nerd."

"They all bore me." Elsword responded curtly, not bothering to elaborate. The redhead closed his eyes and relaxed next to her. His cropped shirt revealed his toned stomach, which rose and fell in time with his slow breathing. A ruby eye peeked open to notice Aisha staring at his abdomen. "Like what you see?"

"Of course not!" Aisha said immediately, snapping her head back against the tree and jerkily shutting her eyes. Her rigid mockery of relaxation did nothing but to feed the Rune Slayer's amusement.

"Whatever you say." He softly responded with a faint laugh, much to Aisha's frustration.

"Jerk." She muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the person next to her to hear it.

"Mmmm." Elsword trailed off, brushing off the insult. "About Eve…"

"Eve? What?" The Elemental Master opened her eyes and gave a piercing stare to the Rune Slayer next to her, a glare he couldn't see due to the fact his eyes were closed. "What is it?"

"I…wouldn't trust her if I were you." Elsword murmured quietly, the breeze fluttering his red locks and eyelashes. "I know you guys are close but…know that people change. Even if you don't expect them to."

"What…?" Aisha felt anger bolt through her as she forcibly kept her tone even, feeling the vein in her temple twitch. Eve clearly said to him yesterday that her family forced her to mess with his life, even when she didn't want to. Was he that thickskulled enough to forget already?

Did he have the right to tell her not to trust her best friend after what he made her go through? It was because of HIM that she had to wear this damn necklace and suppress her powers. It was because of HIM that she got into trouble for the first time in her life. It was because of HIM that Eve was crying and missed her second day of school.

Yet…he has the nerve to say these sorts of things to her?!

Elsword opened his eyes and saw the furious expression on Aisha's face. With a calm tone, he continued talking while maintaining a steady eye contact. "I know you won't believe me now…But I can wait until you find out for yourself." The Rune Slayer got up from his seat next to the twitching angry purplenette. He looked back at the Elemental Master with lucid eyes.

"I don't mind you being angry, but do keep in mind what I said." With that, he walked off, hands lazily in his pockets.

Aisha gritted her teeth. "Elsword!" She yelled, stomping her foot. "Get back here and let me talk! Don't just run off after you- after you say something like that!" She stuttered due to pure anger. The redhead slowly turned around and sighed exasperatedly.

"You want me to listen to what you have to say, while you're all worked up like that?" The chill, smooth tone he was using only fueled her irritation.

"You…Did you not hear what Eve said to you yesterday? Just because you hate her doesn't mean I'll hate her as well! And even if I did…" She glowered and clenched her fists. "Who do you think you are, saying those sorts of things after making me suffer for the past few weeks?"

"Me? I think I have all the right to say whatever I want." Elsword said flatly, looking unaffected by her show of fury. "But it's up to you if you want to believe me or not."

Tears welled up in Aisha's eyes, tears produced from her rage. "You…Just go away! If you want to make someone's life a hell, do it to someone else! You did enough to me!" She spat. The inner part of her sighed. What had she expected from before? A nice and friendly conversation? Look at what happened now.

"I…" Elsword trailed off when his gaze fixated upon something behind her. His red eyes narrowed as he roughly turned around. "I'm leaving. Sorry to get you so worked up. I just wanted to warn you." The Rune Slayer lowered his head and briskly took off with a trot, ignoring Aisha's calls to come back.

The Elemental Master took out her phone, wanting to call Eve. The screen was dark and blank. Droplets of tears splashed onto the screen, momentarily slipping down the smooth surface before Aisha wiped it away with her sleeve. The purplenette clicked the red power button, only to find that her battery had died. Looks like she'll have to wait until school was over so she could talk to her silver haired friend again.

"Miss…Aisha?" A gentle voice called from above her bowed head. Said person wiped her eyes quickly, putting away her phone and looking up to see who had spoken. A handsome blond boy about five inches taller than her was looking straight down at her with beautiful azure eyes.

"Yes?" She asked curiously, watching the brown spots in his hair flutter in the light breeze. "What do you need?"

"Nice to meet you." A hand was offered to her accompanied by a gracious smile, the stranger's tone kind and polite. "My name is Chung."

"Oh wait, so you're Eve's boyfriend?" Aisha gaped, her tears forgotten in her surprise. She accepted the hand and was pulled up from her spot near the mossy roots of the oak. "I…I, uh…"

"Yes, I am. I am an exchange student as well." Chung ruffled his hair, grinning sheepishly. "Eve told me to come to school regardless of her absence. She also told me to watch over somebody named Aisha."

"Oh, I…Um, thank you." The purplenette hurriedly bowed her head in respect and gratitude, unsure of what else to do, thus reverting back to the traditional manners her mother had taught her when she was young. "I'm sorry for my current state. I just…"

"Got into an argument with Elsword?" Chung interrupted. "That I can see. The coward just ran away after he saw me walking towards you." His sky blue eyes narrowed. The darker spots inside his iris seemed to get darker as well. His tone lightened up again. "Forgive me for being so sudden, but I'd like to ask you a few things."

"Um, what sorts of things? But sure, ask away."

Chung's tone darkened ever so slightly. "Why are you wearing our family's heirloom upon your neck?"

Aisha froze, sweat dripping down her face. The necklace against her throat suddenly seemed to pierce her neck with icy claws. "Your family's…heirloom?"

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**And that's all for chapter 7. Don't you guys just love how I wrote the summary yet I'm not even following it yet? LOL. Don't worry, I'll go back to the original summary sooner or later. Probably later. Ahem. **

**SO I GOT CHUNG IN! Some way or another…Those of you who don't like how I'm veering away from my original plot, feel free to write it in a review and slap me in the face with a hammer. :D**

**So, how was this chapter?**

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**P.S. DARKXBLADE YOU BETTER RESPOND. I WILL HUNT CHU DOWN OK. AN ANGRY DESUCHI WILL KICK DOWN THE DOOR TO YOUR HOUSE AND FLATTEN YOU WITH A LUNA BLADE. –coughs politely- Excuse me. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A.N. Oh um, hello all. I'm back! The super lazy sushi is back! (Yes Mario, yes Asian, yes An0n, I finally gave in and accepted the nickname qq) So I was just browsing through my account one day and realized I really should start writing up a chapter for IHY/ILY. It was delayed enough. Apologies. –bows head-**

**The stalker issue from the last chapter (lol, I luv you too KFC buddy) has been resolved. I found him, poked him with multiple Luna Blades, and dragged his butt through sparring. No biggie ^^ -pokes him with a cookie- He and I are friends now. **

**I think. If he doesn't hate me. –averts eyes-**

**Sooo, I reread this story from Chapter 1, and I do havta say…I want to throw RS off a cliff for being such a douche bag to poor EM. But then again, to be honest, I really don't want to 'rush' the romance. This story is cliché enough as it is, I don't think throwing in unrealistically fast romance into the mix is a nice idea. Everyone, join me in my massacre of RS! –hops into a room full of terrified RS chibis with a chainsaw borrowed from Ruby-**

**Anyways, these new Veteran Commanders are way too overpowered. 3vs3 is a joke now, a team of Ignition Crow spammers…well…gg. They stole Rune Slayer's role as a pyromaniac –flips VCs off cliff- (Don't worry, I don't hate the class, I just hate the people who spam with them ;w; Some people want a FAIR match in arena, tyvm.)**

**Quick question, does anyone even read my author's notes? xD**

**This entire thing aside, I now present you the next chapter of IHY/ILY! –sweeps dramatically into a bow-**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. I wish I did. –grumpily noms a cookie-**

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"Your family's…heirloom?" Aisha carefully repeated, a small bead of sweat sliding down her neck at the intense gaze Chung was giving her. The blonde gave a quick nod, his azure eyes darkening in suspicion as he slipped his hands inside his pockets.

"Yes. How is it in your possession?" He asked, gazing at the icy cold piece of jewelry that was adorning her neck near her collarbone. The metal seemed to pierce through her skin as the purplenette uncomfortably shifted her weight.

"The principal gave it to me…I guess you can say I got into trouble and this necklace was given to me as a punishment." She answered, plucking the necklace's gem off her neck and twisting it, examining the clear blue jewel in the center. "It suppresses my magic." Aisha added hastily at the curious look from the other person.

"I know it does. I was simply wondering how and why you had it." Chung dipped his head, his tone returning to that of a lighter one at her explanation. "I think I'll notify my father about this- that necklace is a prototype that wasn't released yet to the public."

"A prototype?" Aisha blinked her violet eyes in confusion, releasing the thin silver chain and letting the cerulean jewel drop back into place. "Didn't you just say it was a family heirloom?"

The blonde boy cleared his throat and smiled sheepishly. "I guess I wasn't clear enough. It's an old project that our family has been working on for generations. We try to combine magic with technology, and the result was an amulet similar to what you're wearing." He pointed a pale finger at the necklace. "I guess we consider it a family 'heirloom' of some sorts, since it's one of the few things that stuck around in our history for quite a while." The mage nodded in understanding and shrugged off her coat, suddenly noticing how she was dripping with sweat.

"It's a bit warmer now, isn't it?" She asked, wiping her brow and noticing the obvious moisture that had formed on her skin. She was sweating profusely, and her body felt sticky and uncomfortable under her clothes. "Maybe it's just me."

"No, I think it just got a lot more humid. Strange, the temperature was relatively normal in the morning." The blonde furrowed his brow and stared up at the sky, shielding his eyes. "More clouds in the air. Maybe a storm is coming soon?"

"I hope not. It would be terrible if I had to walk home in the rain."

"Well, I do wish the storm won't be occurring any time soon, but at the rate the humidity is rising, I can't really say." Chung murmured, lowering his hand and suddenly narrowing his azure eyes. "Shouldn't you be getting to class? Lunch is almost over."

Aisha glanced at a nearby clock and gasped. "Oh, class starts again in ten minutes! Thanks, I really should get going."

"No problem. Oh, and one more thing before you go," Chung momentarily lowered his tone, his voice becoming serious as he grabbed her hand abruptly. "Try to avoid staying near Elsword." Aisha looked up into his concerned expression with a smile, gently releasing the hold the other boy had on her wrist.

"I don't like him much anyways, so don't worry. Thanks anyways!" She responded with a reassuring grin. Her white coat fluttered as she turned around, briskly setting off to her next period. As she walked back into the school building and towards her next class, she hummed a happy tune, in an uplifted mood due to her knowing that even in absence, Eve watched out for her. She had even told her own boyfriend to keep an eye out for her because she wasn't there to do it herself!

As Aisha walked through the hallway, she wondered about the redhead's sudden departure after seeing Chung. Elsword seemed to be slightly afraid of the blonde, judging from the way he had immediately backed off and left as soon as he caught sight of the other teen.

Good riddance, if she just stuck near her silver haired friend and her (rather nice) boyfriend, the rest of the school year shouldn't be that bad. The purplenette shrugged and seated herself into her chair, the seat cool against her thighs. One glance at the chalkboard informed her that she wouldn't be learning anything new today- as usual.

She lazily hooked a foot around a wooden chair leg and leisurely settled down to open up a small notepad. A pencil was drawn out of her thin pencil case; its point was poised over a fresh sheet of blank paper as Aisha mused to herself about what she should doodle. It was a nice alternative to reading in class, and drawing helped to pass the time just as well, if not better.

She didn't notice the piercing ruby gaze burning into her as a certain redhead in the class turned his head in his seat to look at her with a remorseful expression.

* * *

Dark gray clouds of gloom had gathered overhead, blotting out the blue sky with dreary streaks and splatters. A storm had occurred somewhere during the day, just as Chung had predicted, blocking out the sunlight and darkening the area. The shrill noise of the dismissal bell rang as the end of the dismal school day was brought to attention.

Classrooms were emptied quickly as students rushed to leave the dreaded school, but the flow of teenagers trickled to a slushy trickle as the young people groaned and noticed the overcast weather. Rain pattered down onto the sidewalks, splashing at people's shoes and painting them with mud and wet sediment.

"Come on, we better get home before the rain gets worse!" A girl ushered her friend out the door, both females squealing as the cold rainfall dripped through their thin shirts.

"Pfft, the rain is really heavy, look! I'm already soaking wet!" A schoolboy grumbled. Another boy, assumed to be his friend, snorted in response.

"That's what she said- ow! Alright, alright, let's get home. Gotta try out that new video game we bought over the weekend."

The noisy chatter of various students were heard from left and right as the students all left in two's and three's, girls huddling together under a single umbrella and boys dashing home with hoodies drawn up over their heads in a makeshift rain blockage. Aisha took one look at the ferocious hammering of the rain on the ground and let loose a sigh of exasperation, leaning her head against the main doors of the building. She had yet to be splattered with the rain, but the wind was blowing the drops to decorate the tips of her shoes. She watched the water seep into the thin boots and leave behind wet trails.

Looks like she's going to get soaked and give her mom a panic attack when she gets home. Aisha braced herself for the onslaught of freezing wetness as was about to step out into the drenching rain. A warm hand stopped her, gently restricting her movement. She turned around, half expecting to see Elsword (who else would just casually touch her when she wasn't looking?), but instead met a familiar pair of cerulean eyes.

Chung eyed the storm that was howling and drenching everything literally three feet away from where they were standing with skeptism. "Wow, that's a pretty big storm. You'd get soaked if you were to walk out in this rain- want to get a ride home?"

Aisha was tempted to accept the offer but instead shook her head in refusal. She didn't want to bother him with such things when she had just met him today. "No, it's fine; I think I can make it home without too much trouble."

"Are you sure? Eve would be upset if you got sick." The blonde suggested again, glancing at the garments she was wearing- an outfit that was obviously not suited for rain- and flicked his gaze over to the outdoors. "It wouldn't be a problem."

"No, I wouldn't want to use up your time." Aisha shook her head again, ignoring the tiny voice inside of her to just give in and accept the favor, staring up at the sky and peering at the clouds. They were gradually fading from a stormy black into a lighter, fluffier gray. "Look, the storm is letting up a little. The rain settled down a bit, I think I can get home without getting soaked."

"Quick storm, I guess." The boy shrugged and watched the heavy rain transition into a gentle pattering. "Must be pretty lucky. If you're really alright with walking, I guess I'll be leaving first?" He flashed Aisha a small grin, his mouth twisting into a smirk-like smile as he opened the door. His golden hair fluttered in the wind.

It reminded her strongly of Elsword's face when he taunted her, much to her slight annoyance. The Elemental Master nodded her head to signal her understanding, waving goodbye to her best friend's boyfriend as the blonde slipped inside a white limousine parked by the school gates and drove away.

"Now, to get home without ending up looking like a drowned cat…" Aisha mused to herself, stepping out into the rain. Immediately, freezing cold water swept over her and sent chills up her spine, making her shudder. Her teeth clattered unpleasantly.

_This is going to be a really long walk home._

Ten soaking wet, soggy minutes later, the disgruntled purplenette found herself sorely regretting the fact that she hadn't taken up Chung's offer. The rain had seeped through her coat, wrapping her up in an icy embrace. Clutching her bag to her chest, Aisha trudged home, sloshing her boots inside puddles that appeared out of nowhere and trying to see through the wet strands of hair that clung to her face. She shook her head, managing to shake off some drops of water and blinking raindrops out of her eyes.

She grumbled to herself and wrapped her soaked coat around herself more firmly, trying to at least conserve a small portion of her warmth. Although the action served to do absolutely nothing, the mage simply gritted her teeth and walked briskly through the cold rain.

Huffing chilly puffs of air, the Elemental Master noticed a small café sitting in the midst of the downpour. The little shop was still open, judging from the little open sign hung up on the door, facing outwards from inside the glass pane. The girl slung her bag onto a shoulder and hurried to the little café, hoping to get a little moment of warmth or two before continuing her journey home. Her mother can wait a few more minutes, it wouldn't do any good to arrive home half frozen.

Aisha gently pushed the entrance to the building, leaving wet footprints on the tiled floor. She sighed in relief at the lack of falling rain and shook out her wet hair, untying her pigtails and releasing her violet tresses. A green haired waitress smiled at her welcomingly, walking up to her professionally.

"One table?" She asked, adjusting her blouse. Her long emerald locks were held up in a high ponytail that trailed to her mid back, tied firmly by multiple black hairbands. White flower pins adorned her hair. Aisha nodded tiredly, glancing at the storm that was still roaring outside.

She followed the lady to a small wooden table with a comfortable looking chair. The girl settled herself into the cushion, relaxing and taking a breather from sloshing around outside. "I want a mint tea, please." She said, placing her bag on the floor beside her chair. The waitress, Wind (judging from her nametag), nodded and bustled off, leaving Aisha alone to stare at the droplets of liquid pattering on the wide glass window next to her.

The Elemental Master retied her wet hair in their usual pigtails as she waited for her drink. Mint tea always helped to soothe her and bring a little warmth back into her body- something her mother did for her when Aisha was high strung or anxious about an event or thing. Relief from running in a storm couldn't be much different.

A petite white cup was placed on the table near her hand with a light tap. The familiar smell of herbal mint wafted to her nose in wisps- the drink was delicately delicious, and tasted refreshingly warm when she took a careful sip. Aisha looked up gratefully to the person who had served her, but then stopped short in surprise.

_Out of all the people I had to run into, it just had to be-_

"Fancy running into you here." Elsword said, looking down at her nonchalantly. His double red gaze seemed to bore into her. The girl swallowed her mouthful of tea and responded edgily.

"You work here?" She asked, setting down her warm cup and staring up at the boy. The redhead gave a curt nod and averted his eyes.

"Part time job." His answer was clipped but there was an underlying tone that said not to ask any further. The Elemental Master nodded wordlessly, not knowing what to say. She ended up taking another mouthful of mint tea to avoid the awkward silence. A minute passed by in silence.

"Mind if I sit?"

"Uhhh, sure."

The Rune Slayer pulled up a nearby chair and casually flopped into it, acting as if the café was his house rather than a work place. The teen was clad in a simple white dress shirt and black pants, with a plain black apron with large pockets draped over his hips to hold a notepad and a pen. It was a typical work outfit for someone who worked in a café.

The redhead leaned forwards in his seat, folding his hands below his chin as he stared at the purplenette with a cautious expression. One might even think he was nervous to say his next words. His eyes examined her thoroughly as he opened his mouth.

"Did you…" He trailed off uncertainly, which was weird. The Elsword she knew from school was conceited and said everything with assurance. Aisha's ears perked- she was interested.

"Did I what?" Violet eyes were bright with inquisitiveness as she took another unhurried drink from her tea. The red haired boy remained quiet. Moments passed by in an uncomfortable silence as the Rune Slayer pursed his lips.

"Did you think about what I told you today at lunch?" He finally managed to speak, avoiding eye contact. Once again, this was extremely strange behavior. Aisha narrowed her eyes suspiciously- was something wrong with Elsword?

"Not really, since I don't have the proof or the willingness to accept what you said about Eve." The purplenette replied honestly, her tone surprisingly light and casual. The Rune Slayer nodded and seemed to relax.

"I thought so. I expected a harsher reaction, but at least you can hold in your emotions to a certain extent."

"No thanks to you, it was only since Chung was there to help me out afterwards." She huffed and put down her cup. Elsword raised an eyebrow at her statement.

"Chung…?" He asked, his ruby eyes darkening with some sort of emotion. "Chung Seiker?"

"I don't know, I just know his first name is Chung." The girl answered offhandedly. Then a question hit her. "Why so curious about him?"

"Nothing." The Rune Slayer said defensively. Aisha internally nodded to herself firmly, reaching a final conclusion. Elsword was definitely acting weird; he wasn't being haughty or arrogant at all. She wasn't getting angry and probably wouldn't be anytime soon, if the redhead continued to act like this in a civilized manner. No teasing, no insults, no anything.

Just a casual conversation, like they were friends. What the fluff was going on?

It wasn't so bad, she mused. Talking with Elsword in a civilized manner just proved to show that even arrogant buttholes like him can be normal people. Aisha shrugged and finished off the rest of her mint tea in one go, tapping the bottom of the cup to get the last of the warm herbal drops into her mouth. "This is some really nice tea." She complimented, faintly smiling at the empty cup in her hands.

"It's one of the better things this café offers." Elsword twirled his red locks in his slim fingers, examining a ruby red strand in his hands before releasing it. "Tea is Wind's specialty. I can send her the compliment if you want."

"Yeah, you should. I might even come back just for the tea."

The redhead chuckled, the first time she had ever heard him laugh casually. The only time he ever did that in school was when he had first seen Eve- and at that time, it was a humorless and bitter one. Not to mention that the only laughter she usually hears from him are in the form of snickers and scorn. Elsword stopped laughing at her stare and looked at her inquiringly.

"You're gaping at me. Is there something on my face?" He asked with a flat tone. Aisha quickly shook her head and cleared her throat.

"It's just that you never really laughed so…lightly before. In school." She said quietly, clutching the hem of her damp coat. The Rune Slayer mumbled a few inaudible words that were barely noticed by Aisha's acute hearing.

"What?" The girl asked. Elsword shook his head, his scarlet locks swishing back and forth. The teen stood up from his chair and glanced out the large window next to them.

"Shouldn't you be getting home?"

"I guess, but the rain doesn't make the trip any easier." The Elemental Master grumbled sourly. The redhead gave a small snort of amusement.

"You can borrow my umbrella. I'm stuck here for another three hours anyways, by then the storm will disperse." He walked over to the back of a register and took out a small blue umbrella. Handing it to her, he shook off her refusals. "Just take it, it's the least I can do for making you angry today."

_Is this another apology…?_

Aisha quieted down and felt the umbrella be pushed into her hands. She was about to hand it back with another round of saying that she doesn't need it, but stopped at the firm look on the Rune Slayer's face. She wordlessly accepted the umbrella with a sigh, slinging her bag onto her shoulders. "Erm…thanks, then."

Elsword nodded and walked to the door and held it open, waiting for her to go outside. Aisha awkwardly walked past the redhead, unused to the kinder treatment she was getting, compared to how she was treated in school.

Right before she walked out into the rain, she looked back for a second to meet Elsword's eyes. "You know, sometimes a simple sorry can compensate…" Aisha flipped open the blue umbrella and walked away from the café, feeling a burning red gaze staring after her.

* * *

**A longer chapter than usual, I think. Sure seems like it, if it isn't. So tell me, how was it? I felt like I had to include something that will start developing Elbrat's personality, I just feel like he's a bit OOC here…Idk. QAQ**

**Review please! Oh and a question to all, how do you fight spamming VC's? D:**


	9. Chapter 9

**A.N. It seems a number of you want me to update faster and blahblah, how I take a long time to write up new chapters. Sadly I was on vacation so I didn't have access to any computer qq **

**Oh and, uhhh…some reviewers seemed a bit upset about my current wandering away from the original plotline, so…apologies…I just don't have a powerful outline to follow, I prefer to just go with the flow and have fun with writing, but if my readers want the original plotline then who am I to refuse? :I**

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**On a lighter note, apparently many of you think the proper way to fight VC is spam and run. Let's go, RS! –grabs RS and drags him into arena-**

**RS: W-Wait! There's VC's prowling around in there, a-and they'll KILL ME, a-and-**

**Me: Shut up and fight. –leers and stretches fingers on keyboard-**

**RS: B-But OAO;**

**VC: Hai dere wittle baby elbrat. o3o –flexes claws and smirks-**

**RS: -screams in fear and runs away off screen-**

**Me: What the f-…Well, no arena for today, I guess. -.-**

**(Joking, I still don't know how to spam. How do you people do it to begin with? Keep pressing the keys? 0.o) Anyways, I managed to rank up yet again on two of my mains, and I QUIT ARENA. I'M DONE. SS rank now, and I sure as hell am not reaching for SSS. QAQ **

**Meanwhile my Eve only just reached A rank. I really should get to leveling her to at least lvl 50. Gah.**

**Let's make a "Quit Arena" club, shall we?**

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**Review Reponses:**

**xXLovelyAnimeLoverXx: Potato gun? ALRIGHT LET IT RIP! KILL DEM ALL WITH THE POWER OF STARCH. And uhh, yeah, we'll be going back to the plotline soon…sorry if I keep drifting away from it. v.v**

**Archious: Oh, thanks for the compliment^^ I'm surprised new people are reading my story, after all, I figured the majority of my readers were the same people over and over. Nice to see that a new person toddled by and decided to give my story a shot :D**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword.**

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"Alright class, listen up." Mr. Seung strode briskly into the classroom and slammed a stack of papers onto his desk with a frown etched upon his face. His eyes raked across the room, staring at seated students with a wrinkle of his nose. "Due to your lackluster as of late, I am immensely displeased by your grades and progress." He momentarily paused to hunt around for his cup of coffee usually located on the corner of his desk but instead found the area empty. His scowl deepened as he glared around at the class. "Look up when I talk to you!"

Aisha deadpanned and gave the teacher a very flat stare, as did many other students sitting near her. _Looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed and forgot his coffee._ The mage hid a yawn behind a lacy white sleeve and stared at the freshly washed chalkboard, its dark surface littered with watery tracks from where the morning monitors had scrubbed it. Her teacher was seething in front of it, looking very pissed off for some unknown reason. _Who put his panties in a bunch so early in the morning?_

She felt Elsword shift in his seat next to her, blatantly trying not to show his boredom. A few girls in the back of the classroom picked at their polished nails and whispered to each other as quietly as they could, while a couple of boys doodled the corners of their math textbooks. No one was really impressed by their teacher's show of anger, it seems.

"I've decided to temporarily pull out of the curriculum to assign a project." A round of grumbles sounded from the class, but quickly shushed down at the annoyed expression on Mr Seung's face. The man cleared his voice and resumed speaking. "It will be a year-long project, and the final score will count as eighty percent of your semester grade."

The magician listened attentively after the last part as her teacher went on into uninteresting details and extras about the assignment, and other important aspects of the task, like the due date. From what she understood, it was a ten page report on the relationship between humans and the type of magic they used. Already she was brainstorming- heck, she could probably get this done within a few days if she wanted to. Ideas like personality and behavior popped into her mind as the young purplenette mentally sketched the ideas in her mind.

"And let me make this clear to you guys." Her teacher cleared his throat loudly and made sure he had everyone's attention. "This will be a project done in pairs- and I'll be the one choosing the partners." Small murmurs of disappointment and disheartened stares were passed around among the students, everyone knowing how the pairings will turn out. A couple of people were sneaking crafty stares at a certain unaware purplenette, who was obviously well known for her smarts.

Aisha, for one, stole at glance at Eve, who was already staring at her with eagerness. A big project such as this- it would've been _perfect_ if they ended up being partners. Maybe they would get lucky and Mr. Seung would pair them off together?

Probably not. The Elemental Master snorted and waved at her silver haired friend casually in an 'it'll be alright' way. Eve nodded and sat up straighter in her chair, staring intently at her teacher with luminescent golden eyes as Mr. Seung read off a piece of paper- the list that determined who they would be working with.

"Eve and Sakura." He droned, already moving onto the next name. "Selina and Darke."

The purplenette gave her friend a sympathetic stare as the Nasod heiress slumped in her chair and gave her a disappointed glance. "It's alright." She mouthed silently to the girl, giving her a cheerful thumbs-up despite her own chagrin. Aisha brushed off her skirt for invisible particles of dust as the list got closer to her name.

"Ryan and Mira."

_Hopefully it won't be too one sided, and my partner will end up doing at least some of the work._

"Anima and Katelynn."

_But then again, most people tend to take advantage of me when it comes to group projects._

"Zera and Shilvic."

_Maybe this time my partner won't be so bad._

"Naucissa and Hishu."

_Alright, now it's my turn…_

"Aisha and Elsword."

Her heart sank. _Oh god._

* * *

"Honestly, Aisha, you can just request a change of partners." Eve muttered, waving a pale hand in front of her friend's blank face. The two girls were sitting under that same tree again, chatting liberally through their free period. To be more exact, it was Eve trying to drag words out of the mage's mouth as the Elemental Master numbly sat between two mossy roots in a flat silence.

"…" The purplenette just blinked and turned to face her friend owlishly, looking very distracted in her La La land. The Nasod heiress shook her head exasperatedly and snapped her fingers near Aisha's eyes, blowing a strand of gleaming silver hair out of her face. Honey gold eyes were rolled as the mage suddenly burst out into a stream of jumbled sentences and phrases.

"Elsword- project- idiot redhead- are PARTNERS for El's sake- How am I supposed to- I don't think-" The girl shut up and buried her face into her hands and wailed. "Eve, this project is about the relationship between humans and magic. That means I have to get to _know him._"

"You can request a change of partners." Eve repeated again, slightly relieved at the fact that Aisha was speaking somewhat normally again. Her tone remained neutral as she resumed speaking. "Even if you can't, you can just find out enough for the project. No one is saying that you guys should know each other to the deepest darkest levels of intimacy."

"I know, but even after all this time, I still have yet to learn more than five true facts about him." Aisha huffed, more annoyed with herself rather than her friend. She picked out a clump of moss and tore it to pieces with her hands absentmindedly. "That alone causes me distress- how exactly am I supposed to write this report when three weeks went by without me knowing vague facts about him?"

"He works in a café. It's a part time job. He uses runes." Eve pointed out, puffing her cheeks at the mage's over exaggeration about her partner. "That's three facts right there." She chuckled as Aisha gave a deadpan stare at her horrible attempt at lightening the situation.

"I thought you'd be more upset about this situation than you are right now." Aisha stuck her tongue out childishly. "Apparently I was wrong."

Eve blinked her large eyes innocently. "It's not like I'm happy with the situation, but it's only a project. It's not as if you guys are going to run off and fall in love." She snorted. "After what you saw a week ago, I don't think you'd want to be in a relationship with Elsword any time soon." Both girls nodded in agreement. Aisha stuck a finger to her bottom lip in thought.

"If we use up the rest of the year for this project, I'd probably talk to him a lot more than I really want to. Maybe if we just get the project done as soon as possible, then we can avoid prolonged interactions." She said out loud, unaware that Eve was carefully staring at her with a guarded expression. Her friend smiled thinly, the smile not quite reaching her eyes.

"I guess that can work too."

* * *

"Hey, Aisha!" A familiar voice called, jolting the aforementioned person to a stop in the middle of the hallway. An underclassman bumped into her from the back and gave her a small glare before trotting away, lugging his heavy book bag and textbooks as he went. She said a quiet apology despite the fact that the boy was already out of sight.

"What is it Elsword?" She sighed, adjusting the strap on her bag and securing it firmly. The redhead's eyes gleamed as he gave her an all too familiar smirk. Strangely though, she didn't mind it that much anymore, now that she knew that it wasn't always malicious intent behind the crooked smile.

"Since you and I are partnered up for that really long boring assignment, we should get working." He said, eyes flickering to meet her amethyst orbs. The mage felt a small warm tingle in her cheeks but ignored the feeling.

"I guess so." She muttered, her response clipped and brisk. _Remember, this is only a project. You don't want to learn more than you have to about him. Keep it simple and professional._

"A bit harsh with the tone, eh?" The Rune Slayer's voice was flat with a hint of amusement. "Since it'll be uncomfortable going to each other's houses so soon, why don't you meet me at the café at 5 o clock today?"

"Um…sure?" Aisha said. Then she bit her lips, shyly looking away. "Do you think I can…um, get some more of that tea? From yesterday. It was good." She finished lamely. The redhead nodded with a barely noticeable smile.

"Sure why not, Wind should be fine with it. Guess I'll see you then?" Elsword turned around, nonchalantly looking back at her with eyes half lidded in a lazy fashion.

"Hey wait a second." The Elemental Master burst out. "You said something about going to each other's houses. What do you mean?" _Hell as if I'm letting this guy come into my house. Haha, nope._

"Later on. Sooner or later we'll have to; apparently an aspect of the project mentioned something about living arrangements and daily surroundings." Elsword stated, hooking a finger on a belt loop. Aisha so totally did not glance down at the toned skin around his revealed midriff with the action. Not at all.

The girl frowned, not liking the idea of having an unpredictable douche bag prancing around in her house and taking notes on everything he saw. "I think the café will serve enough purpose for our project."

"It won't, believe me." The Rune Slayer said with an all knowing grin. His ruby eyes gleamed behind long lashes. "Don't worry if you're not comfortable with me going into your house. We can always start at my place." With that last note, the redhead smoothly strolled off and disappeared.

Aisha blinked in confusion. Was that last sentence an invitation…to his house? She facepalmed and mentally jotted down a note.

_Note 1: This project is going to be a huge headache._

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**I guess this is the end of chapter 9? Hue…How was it? Im going back to the original plot, but don't worry. Everything that happened so far, like the necklace and blahblah and Eve's history with Elsword will all come together at some point.**

**Other than that, I need opinions. Opinions, opinions, constructive criticism, all that stuff. Please no flamers q.q**

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**Also, Im not sure if this is a wise decision to post this here or not, but I'm currently gearing up my Eve. Sort of remaking her, in a way. Which one do you think is better?**

**1. Mech Set (with Mech Visor) and a Henir weapon**

**2. Mech Set (with Mech Drones) **

**3. Mech Set (with Mech Visor) and a different secret dungeon wep, aka Alterasia Type-B Drones, Dragonic-Caligo Drones, Glitter Alchemist Drones**


	10. Chapter 10

**A.N. I seriously don't know whether I should start flipping tables or start sobbing. I heard my parents mutter to each other about making me delete Elsword from my computer due to the fact that I'll be going into a specialized high school in a week or so and that I shouldn't be distracted by 'pointless games'. I see where they're coming from, but it still bothers me that I won't be able to go online anymore and chat with my friends. OAO**

**I came to the conclusion that I still have about 3 days left of gaming freedom before I'm forced to delete it. No clue what I'm supposed to do with that time. Maybe meet up with a few of my readers here? I'm probably going to derp around on my RS. (Check bio for more IGN details)**

**Special shout out to Breathless Abyss for being awesome! And I still think calling me with 'sama' is too flattering. I insist on "Sushi-chan" D**

**Anyways, I figured that, on the bright side, if I'm grounded from playing Elsword (forever), I can use the extra time to update more chapters. So it isn't too bad I guess. So without any other crap about my real life situation, here is chapter…**

**OMG I HIT DOUBLE DIGIT CHAPTERS ON THIS STORY!**

**Um yeah, the 10th chapter of IHY/ILY!**

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**Disclaimer: Do not own OAO**

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Aisha sat on a wooden chair, leaning against a soft pale pink cushion as she read through the rubric of the project again. Her tongue slid out and slowly moistened her lips as she flipped some pages in her hand, getting increasingly confused with each requirement. Just for a project, she'd have to become Elsword's stalker, and that idea wasn't very appealing to her. If there was anyone in the world that she'd absolutely refuse to stalk, it was the redhead. He dragged around trouble wherever he went.

Well, at the moment he was being rather nice and friendly, something that still caught her off guard despite the fact that she had seen his pleasant side more than twice. At least he could be polite and civilized at times, even though the occasional smirk and teasing made her want to slap him until all those gracious mannerisms disappeared.

"So how exactly do you want to do this?" Elsword murmured quietly, setting down a cup of mint tea beside her and taking a seat across the small table. Unlike the first time she had come to the café, this time the teen was not in his working outfit. Wind had understood the reason why they met up here, thus letting Elsword off work for today.

With a suspicious smile and a lot of muffled giggling. The mage twitched at the memory.

"Well, for starters, we'll have to organize the topics." She said, pointing to the list of various things they needed for the report. Her slim finger trailed down the smooth piece of paper slowly, guiding the other's ruby red eyes. "Since this is a ten page essay, we'll have to find about five topics from the list down there, and give about two pages per topic."

"Two pages per topic? I suppose that isn't too bad." Elsword responded, gazing at her with a neutral expression. The purplenette took a sip of the tea, marveling at the wonderful herbal taste.

"It's a report on humans and magic. There should be plenty of things to write per topic, I actually have a feeling that two pages won't be enough for each focus."

"Make do with it, then." The Rune Slayer drawled, leaning back in his seat and kicking up his legs lazily. His revealed midriff was openly exposed to the air, drawing in curious glances and prying eyes from the various other females who were in the café.

Aisha so totally was not one of them. Not at all. She tore her eyes away from the redhead and focused on her tea, staring at the pale green water swirling inside her teacup. Feeling the other's curious gaze on her, she pointed back to the paper to divert his attention.

"The topics that I believe will be easiest without too much personal interactions are highlighted there." Aisha said briskly, trying to keep her tone even. Oh El, if she was caught staring at the redhead, he was going to tease her about it for the next three weeks.

Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice, although she was pretty sure that the new spark in his eyes wasn't there before. There was a pause as Elsword silently read what she had highlighted. He gave the paper back to her with a small frown.

"You purposely chose these themes so that you wouldn't have to get too close to me." He said with his eyes narrowed. The Rune Slayer leaned forwards into his seat, his posture no longer casual but now rigid and serious. "Who set you up for it? Was it Eve?"

"Eve has nothing to do with this." Aisha responded defensively, unconsciously putting down the teacup between her and the other boy. He caught the action and gazed at her intensely, seeing through her blatant lie easily. The mage swallowed thickly and looked away. "A-Anyways, this is only a project. If you don't like the ones I've chosen, feel free to tell me your own choices."

"So it was her." The redhead murmured with a hint of resentment. His eyes flashed briefly, but his posture returned back to normal after a few drawn out seconds. With an air of forced calmness, he took out an orange highlighter and spoke. "I think these five would work better. The project has to display some level of thought and effort, otherwise the grade will drop." Elsword muttered, quickly marking down his choices and refusing to make eye contact with her.

Aisha was stung by the small action for some reason. She hadn't meant to offend him, and the way she had fiercely defended Eve must've tipped him off. The mage was never good at lying, and obviously the redhead could recognize a lie when he was faced with one.

Even though it was a small matter to her, she had forgotten that Eve and Elsword had a bitter history, albeit a little one sided. Aisha pursed her lips in regret.

"I'm sorry." She said quietly to the redhead, who still had his head bowed and avoiding eye contact. His mouth was set in a straight line. "I didn't mean to."

"It isn't your fault." He murmured, his tone neutral and voice flat. He turned away to pack away the highlighter but kept his eyes on the table in front of him afterwards. "I can take a good guess about why she did it, but you didn't have to lie."

"It slipped out." Aisha responded lamely. She finished her tea and set the empty teacup on the small plate, toying with the edges of the cup's handle. Elsword gave a curt nod, accepting her somewhat pathetic explanation without anything more than a slight twitch of his fingers. A rune popped out from his open palm and fizzled away, dispersing into minute particles of golden magic in the air. Both teens wordlessly watched the rune sputter away in an uncomfortable silence.

"Anyways, we did what we had to do." The Elemental Master said awkwardly, not knowing what else to say with the tension hanging in the air between the two of them. She crossed her legs together in her chair, shifting her weight uneasily.

Why, oh why did she have to make such a mistake? She had killed off what would have been a productive evening had she not made that stupid slip-up.

Elsword glanced up at her, although his expression remained flat. "Leaving so soon?" His tone was back to normal, at least, although it sounded more like he was bored. A hint of a smile traced its way across her mouth at the recognizable drawl in his voice.

In an attempt to cheer him up, she wagged her finger at him jokingly. "If you want me to leave, I will. Not going to bother to find a reason to keep me here longer?"

"Why, do you want me to?" The Rune Slayer had a small smirk on his face again- the smirk that usually always got her worked up and irritated. However, she was a bit relieved at the sight of the familiar quirk on his lips.

"Well, I don't have anything else to do for the rest of the day." Aisha shrugged, trying to keep her voice even as she casually slung her bag onto her shoulders. Her next question could give the redhead the wrong idea, but she went with it anyways. "Want to go somewhere else? I think Wind is spying on us."

Truth to be told, she was. Both teens turned their heads to see the green haired lady chuckling to herself while staring at them from behind the register. The lady quickly turned away from them upon making eye contact but slowly glanced back at the two with a knowing smile on her face. Wind gave Aisha a thumb-up and a wink before attending to another customer.

Elsword made a 'tch' noise and turned away from Wind, a bothered expression clearly etched on his face. "I know a good place. It's almost sun set anyways, we may as well make use of the last bit of sunlight before it becomes nighttime." He murmured, glancing back at Wind and narrowing his eyes as the lady hugged herself in joy and danced around in front of the very confused customer. Poor sap, he looked baffled as he was led to his table, giving the green haired woman a perplexed stare as he ordered his drink.

Apparently his manager found the two of them being together as something to be happy about.

Strange lady.

Aisha shrugged and offered Elsword a smile, something she wouldn't have done if she wasn't feeling so guilty. Speaking of, why was she feeling that guilty anyways? No logical answer really popped up in her mind so she brushed off the issue.

It was a onetime thing anyways, she convinced herself. The mage followed the redhead out the door quietly, her eyes shining with curiosity as Elsword led her through the neighborhood. A few kids were still messing around with their bicycles outside, a girl and a boy chasing each other around in the grass, pedaling around furiously. Both of the kids were called back inside by a woman's voice, no doubt their mother.

Aisha chuckled at the children's' grumbling, finding herself amused by their childish complaining and stomping as they rolled their bikes back into the house. Elsword looked back at her, his hands stuffed into his pockets nonchalantly.

"Oh it's nothing." She said airily, waving her hands. "Where are we going anyways?"

"A hill." He said vaguely with a hint of mysteriousness in his voice. "The view is really nice and the sunset will make it even better." The Rune Slayer gave her a small smile and turned away, the many belts looped around his waist flipping around in the breeze.

Not a smirk, but a smile. The Elemental Master felt a small heat tinge her cheeks, but blatantly set the thought aside as the confusion set in.

When had she gotten used to seeing his smirks? Aisha found the smirks to be part of her daily life- she now considered them as a normalcy.

When had she started to have decent conversations with him? The last conversation she could properly recall was the one where she had blown up on him afterwards on the same day she first met Chung.

Why was she starting to appreciate his type of people? She normally hated flirty arrogant jerks like him.

All these questions tumbled around in her head as the two teens walked alongside each other to the intended location, although it was in silence.

But it was a comfortable silence.

Cue another dilemma inside the purplenette's head. Since when had she gotten so comfortable around the redhead? Eve had warned her about Elsword, and she also knew how rude and inconsiderate the Rune Slayer could be. But up until now, he had been so nice to her, and it made her confused. So very confused.

"Well you look a bit overwhelmed." A drawling tone shook her out of her thoughts. Aisha looked up in momentary surprise and relaxed when it was only Elsword talking to her. She bit her bottom lip and looked down, eliciting a snort from the redhead.

"You can always talk about it." He murmured, pausing and waiting for her to catch up. He strolled alongside her comfortably, the wind brushing his silky red locks against his face. "Even if I might not be the person you specifically want to talk to."

_Well duh, of course you aren't. You're the main problem. _Aisha thought sourly.

She did appreciate his concern though. "Maybe I will, when we reach the hill." She blinked, looking around. Below her feet was grass, something she hadn't noticed before. Surrounding her were flowers and bushes, their petals and leaves smooth and cold.

Oh drat. She had been so distracted that she hadn't realized they had already reached their destination. Aisha gave Elsword a sheepish smile, shyly adjusting her bag strap. The redhead simply stared at her with a hint of exasperation, but sat down onto the grass afterwards. Or to be more specific, flopping down onto the ground and lazily looking up at the sky in complete relaxation.

Aisha wordlessly sat down beside Elsword, sitting with her legs folded under her. Her fingers combed through her silky pigtails as she glanced down at the redhead next to her, who had his eyes closed leisurely. Once again, the Elemental Master fiercely denied the fact that she had stared at the other's toned stomach.

"You confuse me." The purplenette muttered, just loud enough for the Rune Slayer to hear it. The boy made a noise of curiosity and opened one eye, glancing at her with peaked interest.

"How so?"

"You can be rude and a total jerk." She stated bluntly, playing with a cool strand of grass near her foot. "But you also can be considerate and nice, albeit a bit teasing at times. It confuses me." Elsword looked at her with amusement in his eyes but remained silent, having both eyes trained on her as she talked.

"And then there are those moments when my mind just messes up around you." Aisha plowed on, ripping the grass strand to pieces in her hand and reaching for another. "I can't understand you, and it drives me nuts."

"Nice to know I make such a big impact on you."

She could hear the teasing in his voice, but brushed it off. The second grass was torn up into fibers, staining her fingernails green. "Don't flatter yourself. I'm only talking since I'm letting it out." She grumbled childishly.

Another snort of laughter from the redhead.

"But I guess you aren't too much of a bad person." She murmured, leaning back to lie down next to Elsword. The two magic users lay down side to side and stared up at the sky, which was painted with hues of pink, blue, and orange. The melting butter color of the golden sun dipped halfway below the skyline, shining its last rays upon the neighborhood. "I mean, you aren't a bad person to hang around with."

"I sure Eve told you otherwise. Not to mention that I'm pretty sure you hold her opinions in higher regard than my own." Elsword said without any trace of bitterness. A rustling sound was heard as the boy shifted his weight more comfortably into the grass.

Well, that was a first. "I don't even know anymore." Aisha said honestly, rolling over and turning to face the redhead. Her cheeks warmed up at the close proximity but she blatantly pushed the fact aside. "I'm thinking of giving you a clean slate to work with, without having biased opinions from others." The purplenette paused. "Including Eve and Chung." She added after a moment's thought.

Elsword seemed to like that idea, judging from the way he let out a relieved sigh and curled his lips into another smile. The second normal smile she had seen the whole day, both without any traces of taunting or other forms of gleeful amusement.

He rolled over to stare at her with an intense gaze, with the smile still etched onto his face. Aisha was definitely sure she was blushing now- blushing very heavily, at that.

"Then I suppose I can thank you for giving me a chance even after everything that happened?" His ruby red eyes seemed to glow in the light of the sunset, giving an appealing vibe to his already charming appearance.

Aisha ruthlessly squashed the thought. No, she did NOT find him charming. Not at all.

She remained quiet as he gave her a grateful nod and sat up, brushing off small pieces of leaves from his back. "I think we should get going now, before it gets totally dark."

"Yeah…" She agreed lamely, sitting up as well. Aisha internally slapped herself for the horrible response. Curse her social awkwardness, it always ended up coming back and rendering her useless in conversations.

Elsword casually took a leaf out of her hair and flicked it away, standing up. He looked back at her and pointed over his shoulder back at the sunset. "If you like this place, we can always come back."

Aisha thought to herself for a moment, her face still warm. Reconsidering her statement of offering the redhead another chance with a clean slate.

"Yeah. I'd like that." She smiled.

* * *

**Please slap me. Someone please. Slap me in the face. With a hammer. And a plate of sushi. **

**This unholy cliché moment MUST pop up in ALL cliché fanfics, therefore mine cannot be an exception. But I felt so weird writing it out that aghhhhh-**

**Yeah I can't do this. I feel as if I skimped out on adjectives and all, and it makes me feel horrible. But hopefully it wasn't too bad.**

**Reviews?**


	11. Chapter 11

**A.N. Hello everyone, did you guys miss me? Yes? No? Alright. **

**Kay so like, regardless of my previous note (that I posted up, check my Story List if you haven't seen it yet), I really missed writing and I sort of convinced my parents to have the computer for a good hour or so with a bit of persuasion, blackmail, and not-so-subtle hints. The note still pertains to my situation, even if this update was an unexpected, but hopefully pleasant, surprise. I obviously still can't go on Elsword on this computer, nor update as frequently as I would like, but since when have I ever been a frequent updater?**

**Exactly. Never.**

**But I really did miss writing, and high school isn't as difficult as I expected it to be, but hey, I'm not complaining. Maybe I'll be able to make more updates in the future, but that's a big maybe. Having my computer smashed proved to be a slight advantage for me, since afterwards I deliberately ignored my parents for a full two weeks (plus a few other things, like not smiling or talking once in the house, coming home late to avoid too much interaction, and buying my own dinner instead of eating with them) and made them severely regret what they did. Heh, now I can blackmail them, seeing as how they want to keep me as happy as they can without having me crossing over any obvious lines. **

**No one said I couldn't test those lines, did they? Aha, I'm so evil…Imeanwhat.**

**Anyways, I'm only gabbling again. Here's Chapter 11 of IHY/ILY! *sweatdrops and attempts to sparkle innocently***

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Elsword owo**

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"You're doing what again?" Eve's luminescent golden eyes blinked slowly in disbelief, her light colored strands of hair blowing gently around her face. Aisha puffed her cheeks and stuck her bottom lip out, somewhat miffed that she had to repeat herself. The silverette's hand twitched and formed into a fist that clutched her white ruffled skirt.

"I said I'm giving Elsword a clean slate." The magician stated, her tone forcibly light and a casual smile on her face as she carefully observed her friend's reaction. A miniscule drop of sweat slipped down her face as Eve's expression tensed. "I think you should as well." Aisha added cautiously. She was treading on thin ice, so she had to step lightly- one step at a time.

"Why should I?" Was the curt reply. The purplenette could practically taste the stubbornness in that short question. Eve dipped her head a little and her eyes were downcast. The hand tightened around the grip on her skirt and trembled. "All he did was hurt me." She murmured in an undertone.

The Elemental Master was silent for a bit, thinking to herself. She had brought this topic up with Eve to see if the silverette would be willing to give Elsword a second chance as well. Judging from the way the redhead behaved yesterday at the hill, she had come to the conclusion that he wasn't a bad person at all, and their previous interactions had just been personality and past-history clashes. Apparently she had been wrong, since Eve merely remained quiet with bitterness in her gaze.

Although the Nasod heiress claimed the hostility in their shared history (with Elsword) was purely one sided, there was no way she could possible deny the fact that she wasn't affected by it either. Aisha understood that, and knew it wouldn't have been a very considerate thing to bring it up during their lunch period. That was her mistake, yes, but the ends justified the means.

Right?

"Well, the past is the past." The purplenette slowly started, thinking over her words as she spoke. She knew Eve was listening even if the other girl didn't look up from her motionless position. "I mean, I hung out with him a few times already and he isn't an awful person like I expected him to be. Elsword's actually quite polite and thoughtful, really."

_Well, when he isn't being a teasing jerk. _She thought to herself privately. A funny feeling tickled in her stomach when her memory flashed back to a certain redhead's flirtatious smirk.

"You hung out with him a few times, and already you're changing your views on him?" Eve asked flatly, the skepticism blatantly obvious from the way she spoke. "Have you already forgotten what he did to us at the beginning of the year?" The silverette looked up abruptly and gave her an incredulous stare. The purplenette noticed with relief that her friend had relinquished the tight hold on her skirt and was now only resting her hands lightly on her knees.

Aisha held up her hand and ticked off her fingers as she spoke in a rushed, exasperated tone. "He pissed you off, he pissed me off, he beat me in a spar and rubbed it into my face, he made me lose control of my magic, almost got me expelled, had my magic sealed as a punishment, and he made you cry."

"And you still think he's a good person?" The Empress cut in.

"Wait," The purplenette held up a finger near the other's face with a faint smile upon her lips. Eve twitched in mild irritation and leaned backwards to avoid the finger, although the sullenness had disappeared from her face. Her expression was still doubtful, though.

"He made it up to me by getting me away from Chloe and Ivy, he offered me an umbrella when it was raining really badly outside, sincerely apologized more than once on several occasions, and took me to a safer place when his employer tried to be a somewhat disturbing creep on us both."

Eve gave her a curious look at the last one. Aisha shrugged.

"Long story." The Elemental Master quipped, a signal that it was a tale to be told at another time. The Nasod heiress gave her a long look with those clear golden irises of hers, an uncertain look still lingering on her features.

"…I still don't like him." She muttered, flicking a strand of glossy silver hair out of her face. "But I guess I'll take your opinion of him into consideration. I don't doubt you."

"Thanks, Eve! This makes going to school a lot easier for me." Aisha gushed, hugging her friend in joy.

A small thought nagged at the base of her brain, making her wonder why she was so happy that she had somehow repaired the broken bond between Elsword and Eve. Even if she was sealing a tiny crack in their broken history, she was glad she had done _something _to help in the long run.

The latter shrugged and hugged back briefly, although her expression gave away that the heiress was not in the least legitimately happy about the situation. "You're welcome, I guess…" The Empress trailed off, golden eyes still avoiding direct eye contact with Aisha.

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"I'm going to ask this only once, Elsword…" Aisha growled, her hand clenching tightly around her bag strap. A flash of annoyance jolted through her when the redhead gave her an innocent look and held the piece of paper higher, way out of her reach.

Curse her short height. Curse that and her current lack of magic using abilities. Aisha wanted to strangle the nearest living thing that was taller than her- namely a human going by the name of Elsword.

"Give it back!" Aisha hollered, madly jumping up and down in a useless effort to reach the fluttering white object in Elsword's grasp. The Rune Slayer gave a small snort of amusement and leaned backwards to avoid a swipe that went too close for comfort near his face. That annoyingly familiar smirk traced its way across his lips, infuriating the magician more.

"That's more of a demand, rather than asking, isn't it?" He drawled, ducking another swipe that seemed deliberately aimed for his face. Aisha flushed as red as a tomato, a color that clashed horribly with her violet colored tresses. Her amethyst eyes were gleaming with determination as she hopped desperately to obtain the paper that was hovering about a foot away from her grasp.

"I don't care!" She complained. Her eyes were still trained on that piece of paper. The Rune Slayer rolled his eyes and waved it around in the air tauntingly.

"Ask nicely, and I'll fork it over. Maybe even let you have it." He said ingenuously with an innocent expression, although that look in his eyes was far from what he was trying to pull off.

So what exactly was that piece of paper Aisha was so furiously trying to get her hands on? Something that embarrassed her to hell and back. Something that shouldn't be in anyone's hands, much less the redhead's. Something that she thought she had shredded a while back and would never see again?

It was…_that _picture. The one Elsword had taken when he had brought her home when she had passed out after the spar. The one with her hugging the teddy bear while sleeping in her bed with the most peaceful, soft, _girly, angelic_ expression anyone could have. The one that served to be perfect blackmail material, should the situation ever arise.

"Give it back!" Aisha fumed, more embarrassed than angry. She kicked at his leg in frustration, which only served to injure her foot. "Dammit Elsword. You jerk." She huffed, kicking him again with her other foot and injuring that one too.

"I'm flattered." The redhead sarcastically responded, although he rolled his eyes and promptly handed it over to her when she turned away from him in aggravation. Aisha roughly stuffed the stupid thing into her bag and made sure that it would definitely be crumpled up the next time she took it out.

She hated blackmail material. Even more so when it was specifically _her _blackmail material.

She slowly exhaled, blowing a lock of glossy violet out of her eyes. The little jumping fiasco had taken the breath out of her.

"How goes your part of the project?" She asked wearily, seating herself down in her usual spot by the café window. Elsword shrugged as flopped into the seat across from her, still amused by what had just happened judging from the occasional small snort of amusement or a twitching smile.

The Elemental Master gave him a flat stare, wanting to smack him upside the head. "Shut up." She grumbled sourly.

"I didn't say anything." He defended himself, although the corners of his mouth twitched again. "And if you were curious, I found that picture hiding under my textbook yesterday after I went home." His eyes gleamed. "I thought you might've wanted it back."

She glowered and huffed. "Whatever." A minute ticked by as the mage busied herself with glaring holes through the other person.

The Elemental Master sighed and pulled out the stack of papers with several highlighters. "Kay, so, I made the basic outline of the report. What I have so far is..." The purplenette went on to explain to the bored looking redhead about the various details and structures they would use for the report. Time passed smoothly as the pair huddled around the paper.

"I had to stop here, right before we move onto the next section of the report, so I'll need your opinion on how we should-…Elsword?"

No response.

"Elsword?"

Still no response.

Aisha looked up with a raised eyebrow, twirling the highlighter in her hand. She twitched in annoyance at the sight before her. The damn Rune Slayer had dozed off while she was talking, with his face resting on an upturned palm.

Elsword's expression was serene when he slept, Aisha mused to herself, setting down the highlighter and taking a closer look at the other person. It made him look less devious and more childlike. His eyelids were gently folded and he breathed in tiny little puffs as he journeyed through his little La-La Land instead of concentrating on the-

Oh right. The project. The Elemental Master gritted her teeth in annoyance and mercilessly whacked the redhead in the face with the highlighter. Uncharacteristic of her, yes, but projects came before personality.

"ELSWOOOOOOOOOORD!"

The redhead fell out of his chair, clutching his face in pain.

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**Im done? Excuse the last part, major OOC in the end. My main focus this chapter was the first part, when Eve and Aisha were talking. The second part was just for the lolz- enjoy it if you find yourself considering it to be fanservice.**

**K I lied. I couldn't think of anything to write after such a long hiatus, and my time was sort of limited so I just bumrushed this whole chapter. I hope it made at least some sense. I got in what I had to get in, and that's what matters. **

**Eyem suh sowwy.**

**I'd appreciate a few reviews, although I seriously don't think this 'chapter' deserves as many reviews as my updates usually get o3o**


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